Jenna Ortega Under Fire For Filming Wednesday's Dance Scene With COVID

Netflix's newest hit, "Wednesday," is off to a massive start on the streaming giant. The "Addams Family" spinoff exploded on the platform, recording the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language series (via IndieWire). Ortega is absolutely the standout of "Wednesday," as everyone praised her performance. The young actress adds another excellent performance to her very early career. Unfortunately for her, newly-surfaced information has her trending online for all the wrong reasons. 

During a recent interview with NME, the actress unintentionally threw herself under the bus. As the interview dives deeper into the show, Wednesday's dance number, found in Episode 4, "Woe What a Night," became the topic of conversation. "I choreographed that myself!" Ortega revealed. "I'm not a dancer and I'm sure that's obvious. I'd gotten the song about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could ... it's crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film." The interviewer was confused by the statement, which led Ortega to more or less double down on it. She reflected on waking up with body aches and a sore throat and still went to set and filmed the scene, receiving medicine in between takes. She kept filming until her test results came back positive. MGM later told the outlet that the studio implemented strict COVID protocols after the tests confirmed Ortega had COVID, but fans weren't having it.

While NME released the interview nearly a month ago, the information surrounding Jenna Ortega's COVID diagnosis recently took off on social media. It doesn't help the situation that the interview formatted the story in a way that showed Ortega's strength in pushing through the performance while battling the illness. Regardless of intent, fans didn't see it that way at all. In a viral tweet, @LilySimpson1312 stated, "This is a bad thing, right? We all agree that this is not some 'persevering through hardship' moment, its a why the f*** didn't she get sent home, she could get horrendously sick or infect others kinda moment." Many agreed with her sentiment, echoing their disappointment for Ortega, director Tim Burton, and Netflix for putting more importance on the scene than the lives of the cast and crew. 

"According to her, she was in-waiting for the results when they shot that take, when the results came in she was sent home, but tbh I don't understand why she didn't stay home waiting for the result rather than risk contaminating people??" @MrsArtemis_ added to the conversation. But this is likely much bigger than Ortega. 

@LaraOnSet put into question the COVID protocols on set. Since Ortega woke up with symptoms, any protocols that were actually in place should have kept her isolated until the test results returned. @Stolenteeth brought things full circle, saying that these events are the result of American culture that glorifies someone risking their life and the lives of others for their job.

Some Twitter users came to Jenna Ortega's defense, saying that other people are at fault for not having the actress isolate while she waited for her results. "I would also say that this isn't directly on her, if they ordered her to be on set while waiting for the test then its whoever gave that orders fault, not hers. Its only on her if she had the option to isolate and didn't do so intentionally," @ItsUnwilling21 tweeted. Other users, like @ActorAngelina and @21Tnslover, blamed Netflix. No one can be sure what went on behind the scenes, but there was plenty of theorizing in the comments. Some suggested it was just routine testing and it happened to come out positive. 

These events aren't even the first time that the production of "Wednesday" came under fire. Last week, fans took to social media to criticize the show's portrayal of Black characters. As the director of the first four episodes, Burton was the target of criticism for using the show's black characters as the main antagonists, with many fans claiming it was a racist move.