'Wednesday' Faces Backlash After Jenna Ortega Reveals She Had COVID While Filming Viral Scene
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Ortega, who plays the titular character, recalled it was 'awful to film' with symptoms.
Wednesday emerged as a huge hit for Netflix following its debut on November 23.
The Addams Family spinoff follows Jenna Ortega as the titular character as she navigates the mysteries of Nevermore Academy
One scene, in particular, has riled up the Internet, with fans absolutely obsessed with Wednesday’s expressive moves at her school dance.
In the fourth episode of the season, Wednesday performs a compelling dance number set to “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps.
As she delivers the awkward yet confident moves, her face remains completely blank and expressionless—not even so much as a blink— adding to the intrigue of the moment, which has already become a meme and TikTok trend, with fans attempting to replicate the dance moves in their own videos generally set to Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” instead.
Unfortunately, the now-viral scene is getting even more attention—and plenty of backlash—after the actress told NME that she had COVID-19 while filming the dance.
“It’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film,” Ortega said, adding that she “woke up and — it’s weird, I never get sick and when I do it’s not very bad — I had the body aches. I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus.”
“They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result,” Ortega explained of the production team.
"I asked to redo it but we didn’t have time. I think I probably could have done it a bit better,” she added.
Fans immediately called out the streaming giant for forcing Ortega to film while she was feeling ill, and soon after, Netflx provided the following statement, per Buzzfeed: “Strict COVID protocols were followed, and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from the set.”
In a Reddit thread discussing the interview, one fan pointed out that creator Tim Burton and the production company acted negligently as the scene involved a handful of extras: “It's not even a one on one shot,it was literally a whole dance club scene with a lot of people involved. I don't blame Jenna because she informed them in time but I think it was highly irresponsible of the makers to continue the shoot especially since it involved a crowd.”
Another agreed, stating, “Yeah they should’ve halted filming for the safety of herself and everyone else on set as well.”
Ortega, who previously revealed she felt “insecure” about the dance as she choreographed it by herself after watching archival footage of goths dancing, was praised for her authentic portrayal of the iconic character.
And the series is already setting records.
According to Rolling Stone, "Goo Goo Muck" has seen an uptick increase in daily U.S. on-demand streams, noting it could become the band’s first-ever Hot 100 hit and replicating the success of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” after it was included in a pivotal scene on Strangers Things Season 4.
Wednesday has already beat out the success of the recent Stranger Things installment, with Netflix tweeting earlier this week that the series “now holds the record for most hours viewed in a week for an English-language series on Netflix, with 341.2 MILLION HOURS!”
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