It's fair to say that Jenna Ortega’s stardom has increased significantly since the release of Netflix’s Wednesday. To put it mildly, she’s come a long way from being the Disney Channel actress some fans grew up with. Funny enough, Ortega even weirdly predicted her role in the hit coming-of-age show. Something that she probably couldn't have forseen, however, are the kinds of wild fan interactions that she would have in the aftermath of the show's premiere. She recently got candid on that very subject, and you really need to hear these stories.
During THR’s Comedy Actress Roundtable, Jenna Ortega admitted that when it comes to fan encounters, most people recognize her from Wednesday. These situations can apparently vary, especially since the show has reached a wide swath of people. But some can indeed be somewhat "unusual." For instance, Ortega made note of some kooky occurrences that have happened while she's traveled:
Wednesday has a much wider audience than I anticipated, at least age-wise, so it’s older people and younger people. But I’ve had a couple of weird plane stories, too, where I’ve woken up to notes or things like that. I got off one yesterday, and at the end, the flight attendant took her hair down out of the bun, and it was in two braids, and she took her bangs down, and she said, ‘You made me do this.’
While fan interactions are a given when it comes to being a celebrity, some can get a bit out of hand. The notion of waking up to notes being right in front of you, especially on a plane, is very odd. Encounters like the hair situation are also weird, to say the least. I suppose if there's anything to take from all of that attention, though, it's that the Scream alum's show has really resonate with a lot of people. And as a result, they're very passionate about it.
Considering how hard it was shooting Wednesday, one would think that it's nice for the actress to, at the very least, know how much the fans really love it. From working at a near-constant pace to even coming up with her character’s viral dance, she was putting in some serious work. So it's no surprise that it quickly became one of Netflix’s biggest shows. With that, it was probably also a given that it would be renewed for Season 2, which is currently stalled due to the writer strike.
Wednesday has gotten mixed reviews, though, and there were some that weren’t exactly happy with the changes that were made to the titular character. Jenna Ortega herself received backlash after asserting that aspects of the show “made no sense” and revealing that she altered scripts as a result. That later information led to some writers roasting her amid the strike. However, she recently opened up about needing to put her foot down when it came to changes, asserting that projects only work when voices collaborate. Ultimately, she was fortunate enough to do so with director/EP Tim Burton and more.
With the WGA writers’ strike continuing, there’s no way of knowing when Season 2 of Wednesday will kick into high gear, but Jenna Ortega can likely expect even more fan interactions in the meantime. Let's hope that, for her sake, they don't get too out of hand. I mean, let's keep it classy, people. And of course, while you wait, you can rewatch or check out Season 1 for the first time using a Netflix subscription. There are also plenty of other viewing options available from the 2023 TV schedule.
