A renowned showrunner has recently blasted the lead of the hit series Wednesday as "entitled" and "beyond toxic" in a series of tweets published to social media.
Steven DeKnight, a notable filmmaker and TV producer in the industry, ranted about Jenna Ortega following her appearance on Dax Shepard's podcast, Armchair Expert, in which she made some bold claims about the show.
The 20-year-old told the host that she opposed a lot of Wednesday’s dialogue and changed her lines on set without telling the series’ writers ahead of time, which seemingly caused a bit of friction.
"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," Ortega explained. "Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all.
"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.'"
The star continued, emphasizing that there was a point where even she questioned her own behavior: "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."
And it doesn't seem to have sat well with DeKnight, who blasted the actor on Twitter.
Replying to a tweet in which Nicole Levy replied to Ortega's comments about re-writing lines, the showrunner said: "I love talking with actors about their lines/stories. But by the nature of the beast, they don’t have the full picture (in TV) of where the story is going and why some lines are needed for the whole to make sense."
"She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should)," he continued, referring to Ortega's age as the reason why she feels entitled enough to do what she wants. "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."
"This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business," DeKnight added.
Fans seemed to be split about the response, with some claiming that she's using her creativity to bring more to the character while others slammed her "entitled" decision.
"Ditto. I love her work. But yeah, that's just a no-go. Talk to the writer and work it out together, but just changing lines... definitely not," wrote one user.
"What? Wednesday is Netflix’s second biggest English-language series of all time. Go and say 'Thank You' to ger hommie for changing c****y nonsensical dialogues," added another.
A third stated: "Don’t stress; she’s an actor- she’s literally paid to be someone other than herself. That in itself proves that her level of talent is so little that she can’t do anything else and that her personality is so s*** that people wouldn’t hire her for it," while another social media user defended Ortega: "Beyond toxic? How delicate you are. Sounds like a lot of the changes she made helped it be a success. Some of the original writing sounded awful."
In a separate interview with The Times UK, Ortega also admitted the only reason she went for the role is because Tim [Burton, director and executive producer of 'Wednesday'] is such a legend, and we just happened to get along very well."
Prior to that, she stated that she initially "passed" on the opportunity because she had "done so much TV" in her life, but she also went on to state that she thought taking on the role would prevent her from getting the jobs she "really wanted and cared about."
Ouch.
However, her role proved to elevate her career to a whole new level.
"I used to do a Disney show when I was younger," Ortega told the outlet. "I was a little bit of a public figure, used to get recognized, or whatever. When I look back, I think I was so out of place. I didn’t understand where I was, and you start to see Hollywood for the first time and it’s a bit intimidating, a bit off-putting. I felt like I was a people’s princess. I didn’t really feel like myself.
"Then it started to slow down and I lived a pretty normal life... until Wednesday, until now, I think."
Wednesday is one of Netflix's most popular TV series, ranking just behind Stranger Things 4 as Netflix’s most-watched English-language series of all time, as per Variety.