Jenna Ortega didn't ask Christina Ricci for any Wednesday Addams advice on set: 'I didn't want to rip her off'

Wednesday star Jenna Ortega did not look for any spiritual guidance from her predecessor and castmate Christina Ricci when it came to playing the Addams family's eldest child onscreen.

The actress revealed that she and Ricci, who played Wednesday as a child in the 1991 film The Addams Family and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values, never spoke about their character connection while filming the new Netflix series together.

"I think when [Ricci] was on set, neither one of us said Wednesday once to each other," Ortega said in an MTV News interview with her costar Emma Myers. "I don't think she wanted to get in the way of my performance and feel like she was overbearing."

Ortega felt similarly awkward about broaching the topic with Ricci, who plays Nevermore Academy's dorm mom Marilyn Thornhill in the show, while they were on set. "I felt like I didn't want to pull up something that she did 30 years ago," she said. "For the sake of my own benefit, but two, yeah, I didn't want to rip her off and I didn't want to be too much like her."

While the '90s films and the television series are both based on Charles Addams' original cartoons, that's about where Ortega sees the similarities between them end.

"Our show has super powers and outcasts and evil ghost pilgrims," she said. "They're two very different people, our Wednesdays."

Charley Gallay/Getty Jenna Ortega and Christina Ricci

Directed by Tim Burton, Wednesday centers around a teenage version of the delightfully dreadful character as she investigates a string of murders at Nevermore Academy. Its creepy, kooky, and altogether spooky cast includes performances by Gwendoline Christie, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Hunter Doohan, Percy Hynes White, and more.

Wednesday is streaming on Netflix now. Watch Ortega and Myers' spoiler-filled conversation about the series above.

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