American actress Jenna Ortega was recently criticized on Twitter by Hollywood producer Steven DeKnight (“Smallville”) for her “more than toxic” nature and her negative comments about the script of the Netflix production “Wednesday”.
The actress, who portrays the young Wednesday Addams in the Netflix series, “fuck” the writers and showrunners with her behavior. DeKnight refers to a recent podcast appearance in which the 20-year-old says she found the script so inappropriate for her character that she sometimes changed entire lines.
However, the TV producer received a lot of criticism for the intensity of his Twitter appearance and has now put his indignant statements into perspective. Among other things, he said: “Creative differences should simply stay in the family”.
Jenna Ortega vs. Steven DeKnight: What happened so far
Jenna Ortega recently shared a lot about the series “Wednesday” – and now she has to take a lot.
Since the start of the series in November 2022, she has repeatedly reported on rather unfortunate conditions during the shooting of the production in the past few months, but instead of receiving encouragement, she has received one (Twitter) shit storm after the other. For example, when she reported on her stress on the set due to the 12 to 14 hour shifts or emotional pressure and that she said her own perfectionism got in the way – she was then accused of “whining”. Twitter users also figuratively commented that Ortega shouldn’t complain when she’s sitting in an ivory tower.
The current controversy, which so incensed Steven DeKnight that he tweeted about the young actress, only began after Ortega appeared on the podcast Armchair Expert on March 6, as also reported by NME. While there, she shared with host Dax Shepard about the things she needed to do—or didn’t want to do—for her character on the show.
She also tells the podcast that she interfered with the script during the filming of the series and sometimes got into arguments with the script chief. She felt that many of the lines she should have spoken didn’t fit the character of Wednesday Addams.
Jenna Ortega: ‘Everything I had to play didn’t make any sense to the character’
“Everything she [Wednesday] to do, everything I had to play didn’t make any sense to her character at all. Being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about this dress she has to wear to a prom and she was supposed to be like, ‘Oh my god, I love it. Oh I can’t believe I said that. I really hate myself.’ And I had to say, ‘No, that doesn’t fit.’”
“I may have acted unprofessionally”
Ortega even admitted during the podcast episode that he may have acted unprofessionally: “There were times on set where I even got unprofessional in a way because I started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going to change something and then I had to sit down with the writers because they were like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I had to explain to them why I couldn’t do certain things.”
TV producer outraged by Ortega’s behavior
In light of her revelations, Steven DeKnight condemned her behavior in Twitter posts and suggested the 20-year-old could have approached the matter in a much more professional manner:
“She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners did an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refusing to act on the material.” He added, “That kind of statement is more than valid and poisonous. I love their work but life is too short to deal with people like that in the industry.”
She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material.
— Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) March 7, 2023
In one of his tweets, DeKnight also wrote that Ortega “didn’t give a fuck” about the writers and showrunners, was “toxic” and “calculating”.
Doubtful since she clearly shit on the showrunners/writers publicly. https://t.co/3gtB0pOIEl
— Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) March 11, 2023
“Creative differences should stay in the family”
After DeKnight also had to take criticism for his statements, he explained and qualified his statements in further tweets:
“My comments were about breaking the trust we all have on set and during the production process that our creative differences stay in the family,” DeKnight wrote in response to a tweet criticizing him “Shit” on Ortega.
My comments were about breaking the trust that we all have on set and during the production process that our creative differences will stay in the family. it was never about her creative concerns, which were valid. https://t.co/bl98cnjJCr
— Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) March 15, 2023
DeKnight: “It was never about her creative concerns that were valid. Or their performance, which was fantastic. I sincerely hope that clears things up. Again, I can’t stress this enough: she is an incredible talent. It was just an unfortunate situation to make creative differences public.”
In another tweet, DeKnight concluded, “Back to work. As always, try to be nice to each other, even if we strongly disagree. And yes, there are times when I have to heed my own advice. We are all emotional ‘works in progress’.”
More About Jenna Ortega and “Wednesday”
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