Jenna Ortega explains being “protective” of Wednesday on set of Netflix’s hit

Jenna Ortega won raves for her lead performance in Netflix’s hit Wednesday, and on Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Podcast, the actress explained how she was so “protective” of her character that she took it upon herself to change her dialogue, and yes, create that viral dance all by herself.

“…When I first signed onto the show, I didn’t have all the scripts,” she explained. “I thought it was going to be a lot darker….I didn’t know what the tone was…”

She continued, “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…Everything that…I had to play [in the script], did not make sense for her character at all…There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines.”

Jenna added, “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 through and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”

She credits the “collaborative” nature of director Tim Burton for letting her get away with it.

As for the dance, Ortega said she declined Burton’s offer to hire a choreographer. “…[A]t that point, I was so…protective of Wednesday, that I didn’t want anyone else touching her, because I stopped trusting outside opinion, and I was like, ‘No. I got it. I’ll handle it. I should know her at this point, don’t even worry about it.'”

And the Scream VI star also expressed she has other aspirations. “I think there’s a big part of me that would much rather direct than act, and I kind of look at my acting career as a [gateway],” she admitted.

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