Jenna Ortega Recalls ‘Hysterically Crying’ Over ‘Wednesday’ Schedule: ‘I Did Not Get Any Sleep’
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Jenna Ortega reveals “Wednesday” had a filming schedule that left her in tears.
Speaking at a Netflix-hosted Q&A panel in Hollywood on Thursday, the star recalled their intense work hours while filming for the hit show, which included lessons outside of filming.
“It was show up to set two hours early, do that 12-14 hour day, then go home and then get on a Zoom and have whatever lesson that I had. Or show up to my apartment, my cello teacher was already waiting for me,” Ortega said, via Variety. “It was just constantly going, and if you could on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting the sixth day that week, it was ‘All right, well then, we’ll get your lessons in on that day.’”
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A particular difficult period was when she was undergoing training to perform the “Paint it Black” cello sequence, which saw her switching teachers as she was moving abroad as well as the fact the piece was intended for two cellos.
“I did not get any sleep. I pulled my hair out,” the actress said. “There’s so many FaceTime calls that my dad answered of me hysterically crying.”
While director Tim Burton assured her it would look fine when it came to film, telling her, “Oh, don’t worry, you’re going to do great. It’s gonna look great,” she still wanted to do her best.
“I didn’t know where my hands were even supposed to go and then I had to make two cellos come out of one cello, which was ridiculous,” she explained.
In the end, Ortega had to make compromises as they began running out of time.
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“We started running out of time because Wednesday’s in pretty much every scene,” she continued. “They had to start using stunt doubles or occasionally cello doubles if they didn’t have time to get hands, but I was very adamant about being as well prepared as possible because I wanted them to be able to use myself, because that’s so much more believable if you could see your face.”
In the end, the actress’ efforts paid off as “Wednesday” became a smash-hit upon release, setting the platform record for hours viewed in its first week for an English language series with other 341 million, beating out “Stranger Things 4”.
