The ‘Wednesday’ Writers That Jenna Ortega Dissed Are Writing Her New ‘Beetlejuice’ Movie
Well, this is awkward. Last week, Jenna Ortega confessed to behavior that “almost became unprofessional” when she started rewriting her lines in real time during Wednesday filming. “There was a line about, like, this dress she has to wear for a school dance, and she said, ‘Oh my God, I love it. I can’t believe I said that, I literally hate myself,’” Ortega told Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast. “I had to go, ‘No.’”
It wasn’t just dialogue — Ortega put her foot down about entire plotlines that she felt were just plain cringe. “Everything that (Wednesday) does, everything that I had to play, does not make sense for her character at all,” she explained. “Her being in a love triangle made no sense.” As for the show’s iconic dance number? Ortega had strong feelings about that as well, nixing producer Tim Burton’s choreographer and doing her own thing. Well, that one definitely worked out.
Don't Miss
So good on Ortega for standing up for Wednesday's integrity, we guess. But not so good for the show’s writers, who pretty much got publicly dragged for scripts that she found lousy.
Now, in an attempt to corner the market on creepy goth girls from beloved 1980s screen comedies, Ortega is circling the Winona Ryder part (actually, it’s the daughter of Ryder’s character Lydia) in Beetlejuice 2. Michael Keaton would be back, as well as director Tim Burton, the Wednesday chief who had to tell his choreographer to go home. But here’s the real awkward part: Puck’s Matt Belloni reports that the sequel is “being written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, her Wednesday showrunners. Yes, the same Wednesday showrunners that Ortega kinda crapped all over.” Those Beetlejuice 2 table reads should be a gas.
No one should take any of this personally, however, since Ortega is clearly establishing herself as a creative force. She’s also rewriting scripts over at Saturday Night Live this week, nixing the script presented by the Please Don’t Destroy boys for a show promo. Gough and Millar can take a page out of the Ben, John and Martin playbook — if you pout enough, you can even convince Jenna Ortega to see things your way.
