Published on 05:11 PM, March 20, 2023

‘Wednesday’ producer calls Jenna Ortega ‘toxic’

Jenna Ortega. Photo: Collected

Tim Burton's "Wednesday" became an instant hit upon its release. The Jenna Ortega starrer received praise for its dramatic cinematography and intriguing plot.

However, now the star of the show, Jenna Ortega has received harsh criticism from the show's producer, Steven DeKnight. The producer has described Jenna as being "difficult to work with", "toxic" and "entitled".

Recently, during an appearance on the Armchair Expert Podcast, Jenna confessed that the script for "Wednesday" needed a lot of work.

She would go on to say that nothing about the character of Wednesday Addams made any sense to her initially. "I don't think I've ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on 'Wednesday'," she shared.

Jenna would go on to give examples of some out-of-character moments on the show. "Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense. There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, 'Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh — I can't believe I said that. I literally hate myself.' I had to go, 'No.' There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they'd be like, 'Wait, what happened to the scene?' And I'd have to go and explain why I couldn't go do certain things. You can't lead a story and have no emotional arc, because then it's boring and nobody likes you," shared Jenna.

Ortega also noted that a part of decision to speak up was to protect her own reputation.

Steven DeKnight, 58, appeared to take offense to this, calling Jenna Ortega out in public for disclosing her artistic differences. Jenna's age was eventually cited by the "Wednesday" producer as the reason for her "immature" behaviour, branding her poisonous and unprofessional in the process.

"She's young, so maybe she doesn't know any better (but she should).  She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material," wrote DeKnight in his Twitter post.