SCREAM QUEEN SCREAM QUEEN

a broad range performance. “I’m excited by the human experience and all that you can contribute [to it],” she says of the role. “The idea of making people feel something and being able to put myself in the shoes of other people and see the world from a different perspective is so fascinating to me.” With You and Wednesday, Jenna adds to a list of projects that are clearly defined by their spooky nature, including The Babysitter: Killer Queen, X, and this year’s Scream, where she

Wednesday is, off the jump, a fresh take on a familiar character. Although we see new takes on Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Gomez (Luis Guzmán), Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez), and Lurch (George Burcea), the show centers on Ortega’s Wednesday, marking the first time a member of the oft-costumed family flees the nest (or perhaps spider web would be more appropriate) to become a lead character. Deep in the throes of adolescence, Wednesday’s misbehavior at a normie high school lands her in Nevermore Academy, a gothic boarding school for gifted misfits, including vampires, mermaids, werewolves, and other members of the fantastical. Wednesday is an outcast’s outcast, a sardonic genius with deadpan wit, big eyes, and savage quips ready to fire. Ortega is part of an array of Latina actresses breaking the ceiling and creating space in the industry, including Melissa Barrera who plays her older sister in the latest Scream series. “There aren’t a lot of leading lady Latinas in the industry – not because they’re not out there, but because they aren’t given the same opportunity,” she explains. “Growing up, I was always told that I had to take absolutely any job that I could get.” Now, she notes, “Listed ethnicity for jobs is not as strict as it used to be… for the most part, I feel like they give everyone an opportunity, which is really wonderful.” One of these opportunities is Wednesday, which is a big deal. I tell her as much, saying that the child me in Mexico would’ve geeked if the iconic character was Latina.

There are two key collaborators of the show who helped authenticate the endeavor. The first is the aforementioned Ricci, who guest stars as a Nevermore teacher and mentor/counselor to Ortega’s Wednesday. The second is Tim Burton, who, by his successful construction of worlds that are strange and unusual, fits nicely as an architect of the Addams universe. Burton serves as executive producer and director of four of the eight episodes. “It was an honor. It’s hard to find an actor’s director, who knows how to speak to an actor and is curious to know what they genuinely think. That was something Tim would always do,” Ortega shares, noting they would overview the character, her markup, her intentions, together. “We’d be doing setups for shots and he would just show me drawings that he did for each,” she adds.

2.