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'Will have nothing to punch up!': Writers on strike mock Jenna Ortega for taking credit for 'Wednesday's character improvisation

'Wednesday' star Jenna Ortega has found herself in troubled waters for comments she made about the writers of 'Wednesday' during a podcast

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jenna Ortega, the star of Netflix's flagship show ‘Wednesday’, has landed herself in trouble with the writers from Hollywood who are on strike. The 20-year-old actress, who shot to fame in 2022 with her deadpan portrayal of Wednesday Addams in the hit Netflix show, is making headlines but not for a good reason. The film and TV writers are on strike after talks with Hollywood studios for fair compensation fell off the table earlier this week. There is a gloomy ambiance surrounding the writing world which has halted late-night shows of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and 'Saturday Night Live'. 

The writers on strike are finding time to respond critically to anyone who has or continues to undermine their work. Unfortunately for Ortega, her candid interview with ‘Armchair Expert’, a renowned media podcast, has come up for discussion, with the writers finding snippets of the young actress concluding that she changed lines for the character on the sets of ‘Wednesday’. But is this all that Ortega did to rile up the writers?

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What did Jenna Ortega say that made writers mad?

Ortega is now a household name and has amassed a huge fan following for playing the goth girl in ‘Wednesday’. But why is she being persecuted by the writers? It’s because she remarked on ‘Armchair Expert’ where she openly spoke about her time on the set of going overboard with the writing team by constantly quibbling with them. “There were times on that set where I almost became unprofessional in a sense, where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought that I was like, going with something, and then I would have to sit down with the writers and they would be like, ‘Wait, what happened to this scene?’ And I would have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things.”

Ortega stated, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday. Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about a dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh my God, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that, I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No.”

It’s good that actors try to amp up the dialogues to improve the character they are playing but Ortega went a little overboard, undermining the work of writers and unintentionally taking credit for the writing. This didn’t sit well the writers are currently on strike.

How did writers on strike react to Jenna Ortega’s comments?

The common notion going around in the writing community is that Ortega was solely responsible for levering up the writing of the show, which is not entirely true. ‘BoJack Horseman’ writer Nick Adams tweeted in response to Ortega’s comments on ‘Armchair Expert’ and wrote, “Jenna Ortega better be back from NY for her afternoon shift on the picket line.” 'House Party' writer Brandon Cohen came up with a sign on a board, “Without writers, Jenna Ortega will have nothing to punch up!”

From a cursory look, one can tell that Ortega was just doing what was best for the character but her constant interference in writing and then re-writing upset the writers on the show, leading to a ripple effect which is in full flow with the striking writers making a joke out of her.

The resolution to the writers' strike is nowhere to be seen but given the time on their hands, the attacks and confrontations will continue on anyone who tries to tell them on how to do their job.