Jenna Ortega Refuses to Do the ‘Wednesday’ Dance in Deadpan ‘SNL’ Promo — Watch
Jenna Ortega is filled with satirical woe at the idea of performing the viral “Wednesday” dance for “SNL.”
The “Scream VI” star, who led the record-breaking Addams Family spin-off Netflix hit series back in late 2022, hosts “Saturday Night Live” March 11. In a promo for her upcoming appearance, Ortega deadpans that she is unwilling to get back into her black lace costume for a bit.
“Honestly, this is really well-written, but I just don’t feel like I want to do the ‘Wednesday’ dance for promo because we’ve seen so much of that already and I think it’s time to do something new,” Ortega says in the ad.
The Please Don’t Destroy “SNL” group begin to roast her for refusing to do it until Ortega eventually gives in and disinterestedly goes along with the choreography.
Ortega recently revealed that she asked “Wednesday” executive producer/director Burton to not hire a choreographer for the viral dance sequence because she had “stopped trusting outside opinion” about the character and was “so overwhelmed.”
“Initially, it was supposed to be a flash mob and she was supposed to start dancing and everyone was supposed to pick up on it and start dancing with her. And that, I vetoed, because why would she be OK with that?” Ortega said during Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast. “I said, ‘Either cut it or have Wednesday knock someone out, and then it’s done.’”
The dance sequence ultimately felt “very Wednesday” to Ortega due to her creative control over it. Ortega is also serving as an executive producer on Season 2 of the series.
“There were times on that set where I even became unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines,” Ortega admitted. “The script supervisor thought I was going with something, and then I would have to sit down with the writers and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things.”
Filming “Wednesday” in Romania also conflicted with Ortega reprising her role on Netflix’s “You,” leaving the actress “devastated.”
Despite Ortega’s critically acclaimed turn as Wednesday and landing Screen Actors Guild Awards and Golden Globe nominations, the “X” star chalks up the series’ success to audiences just being “easy to please.”