Jenna Ortega Rewrote 'Wednesday' Lines

Jenna Ortega said she had to put her "foot down" during early readings of the script for "Wednesday."

The 20-year-old actor plays the titular role in Netflix's hit comedy-horror series, the streamer's second biggest English-language series, but Ortega shared with Dax Sheperd during an appearance on his "Armchair Expert" podcast that earlier scripts needed much editing.

"When I read the entire series, I realized, Oh, this is for younger audiences," Ortega said, according to the Independent. 

"When I first signed onto the show, I didn't have all the scripts. I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn't. … I didn't know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like. I don't think I've ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on 'Wednesday.'"

Ortega said that "everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all."

"There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, 'Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can't believe I said that. I literally hate myself.' I had to go, 'No.' There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines.

"The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they'd be like, 'Wait, what happened to the scene?' And I'd have to go and explain why I couldn't go do certain things."

Ortega admitted that she had also grown "very, very protective" of her character.  

"You can't lead a story and have no emotional arc because then it's boring and nobody likes you. When you are little and say very morbid, offensive stuff, it's funny and endearing. But then you become a teenager and it's nasty and you know it. There's less of an excuse."

• Lisa Loring, TV's Original Wednesday Addams, Dead at 64
• Christina Ricci as Mom Morticia, Photoshopped or Not, Still a Hit