Jenna Ortega has just finished a long day on set in London for an upcoming project when she gets on the phone to speak with me from a moving car — not an uncommon occurrence for an in-demand star. Despite the whirlwind nature of the last few hours, the gracious 22-year-old actor sounds genuinely invested when answering questions with a respectful straightforwardness.
In addition to Ortega’s multiple big-screen titles out this year, “Wednesday” — the Tim Burton-helmed show that propelled her from rising talent to Hollywood “it girl” — returns for the first part of its second season on Aug. 6 after a three-year pause.
And while this latest chapter in the story of the Addams Family and their morbidly brilliant daughter Wednesday sees her grappling with newfound, unwanted fame after saving Nevermore, the school for outcasts, Ortega doesn’t like to dwell on the pitfalls of celebrity, unlike her character.
“Oh, I don’t really think about it too much. I used to, but I don’t really see a point anymore. It is what it is,” Ortega says politely when I ask how she deals with the increased popularity the series has brought her. “Maybe that was the writers’ intention, to be slightly meta.”
Jenna Ortega returns to her titular role in Season 2 of “Wednesday.”
(Jonathan Hession / Netflix)
The first season of “Wednesday” became Netflix’s most-watched show when it was released in 2022 and soon inspired a viral social media trend around Ortega’s dance moves to the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck.” Her character’s wit, confidence and modern goth style made Ortega an instant hit with viewers. She captured Wednesday’s essence with such biting precision that her performance now feels inextricable from the role.
Since that breakthrough, the actor has consolidated her status as a brooding leading lady starring in the horror hit “Scream VI,” diving deeper into Burton’s universe with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” appearing in the fantastical dark comedy “Death of a Unicorn” and joining the music-laced thriller “Hurry Up Tomorrow” opposite pop star the Weeknd.
“Growing up, I actually played the really nerdy, awkward character. I was never pegged as the dark one,” Ortega explains. “That’s why it’s kind of funny that it’s sort of my MO now, because I was always being described in scripts as a mouse or like, really intelligent but lacked some sense of confidence.”
While Ortega hopes that some of her credits on the horizon will change that narrative, she acknowledges that a “dark” character like Wednesday Addams offers complexity that’s exciting for an actor to play. “It’s weird that oftentimes when people see you as one thing, they only want to see you as that,” she says. “And when you venture outside of it, it can be quite disengaging for people.”
“Growing up, I actually played the really nerdy, awkward character. I was never pegged as the dark one,” Jenna Ortega says.
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
Also back for the wonderful weirdness of “Wednesday” are Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán, the veteran performers who play the heroine’s parents Morticia and Gomez Addams. This season features their characters more prominently, much to their delight.
“Me and Luis were like, ‘Can we do any more?’” says Zeta-Jones on a video call from Spain about their roles in the first season. The YA series catapulted fresh faces like Ortega and Emma Myers, who plays Wednesday’s roommate Enid, to stardom, but Zeta-Jones and Guzmán have dozens of film and TV credits between them, bringing decades of experience to the show. (Zeta-Jones is also an Oscar winner for her supporting role in 2003’s “Chicago.”)
When she learned that series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar planned to look closer at the other members of the Addams clan, including Gomez and Morticia, Zeta-Jones was eager to flesh out her part, signing on for Season 2.
“I was thrilled because for such an iconic character, you don’t really know a lot about Morticia,” adds Zeta-Jones in her distinct Welsh accent. “They finely tuned her vulnerability, her emotion, her fraught dynamic with Wednesday, and then brought in Grandma Frump [Morticia’s mother, played by Joanna Lumley].”
Guzmán describes the new episodes as a continuation of the ethos of inclusion established in the first season, a quality that has helped the Addams Family endure across generations.
“Me and Luis were like, ‘Can we do any more?’” says Zeta-Jones about playing Wednesday’s parents, Gomez and Morticia Addams. The pair are featured more prominently this season.
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
“Our show shows people that it’s OK to be who you are no matter what,” he says during an interview inside a trailer at the Forum before taking the stage for Netflix’s Tudum event in May. “It’s not about fitting in — it’s just about living your life, and it’s OK to be how you are. Weird might not be the best word, but in our case, weird is beautiful.”
Guzmán, who often speaks about his character in the first person, is pleased that audiences will discover Gomez’s nuances this season. “You find out more about his fathering. I do have a whole segment with my son [Pugsley, played by Isaac Ordonez] this season,” he says. “And you just see how I navigate my life as a father in all the different circumstances that we come across.”
This larger dose of Gomez features a rendition of the Spanish-language romantic track “Bésame Mucho,” a 1930s bolero written by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez for which countless versions exist, in a scene that allowed the Puerto Rican actor, whose storied career includes multiple collaborations with director Paul Thomas Anderson, to flex his passion for singing.
“They’re just so excellent as the characters and so funny together. They bring such a great sense of humor,” Ortega says about her on-screen mom and dad, who share a passionate relationship like past iterations of the characters. “And who doesn’t want to see Gomez and Morticia all over each other? That’s half the point of the series in general.”
“They’re just so excellent as the characters and so funny together. They bring such a great sense of humor,” says Jenna Ortega of Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia and Luis Guzmán as Gomez.
(Jonathan Hession / Netflix)
It’s not the first time the actors have worked together, either. “Wednesday” reunited Guzmán and Zeta-Jones for the first time in more than two decades after sharing the screen in Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 Oscar-winning crime drama “Traffic.”
“We hadn’t seen each other in all this time, and then we totally picked up where we left off,” says Zeta-Jones. “I was pregnant with my son during ‘Traffic,’ and Luis used to take such good care of me, making sure I had my tea and my stool to put my feet up.”
Guzmán said their reunion was “incredibly rewarding,” calling her “kind and precise in her work.”
Ortega, who is well aware of her co-stars’ careers and accolades, treasures the time she’s spent with these seasoned artists — first in Romania, where the first season was shot, and more recently in Ireland for this return — particularly because it’s a show that required them to create a familial bond while playing peculiar characters.
“They’ve had such extensive careers and have done all sorts of genres, so they’re very malleable performers,” she says. “And to be able to work with them on a show that is kind of a conglomerate of so many different ideas — it’s incredibly beneficial and has just been such wonderful education for me.”
The admiration is mutual. Zeta-Jones believes sometimes great success at a young age is bestowed on individuals who are not equipped to deal with it no matter how many mentors they have on their side. Ortega, she thinks, represents the antithesis and is effusive about her work.
“They’ve had such extensive careers and have done all sorts of genres, so they’re very malleable performers,” Jenna Ortega says of co-stars Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
“I can’t think of anyone more deserving or more prepared for what has happened to her in such a short space of time, because she’s the real deal,” says Zeta-Jones about Ortega. “She’s got her head screwed on right. And more importantly, she’s unwavering in her strength as a young woman. We talked art, politics, a whole bunch of s— that has nothing to do with ‘Wednesday.’”
The two actors have already shot another project together, “The Gallerist,” an upcoming thriller filmed in Paris that also stars Natalie Portman and was directed by Cathy Yan (“Birds of Prey”) . “It was wonderful to work with her not in the ‘Wednesday’ world,” adds Zeta-Jones.
These days, Zeta-Jones, who says she wants to direct in the future, feels she has nothing left to prove in this industry. The actor established herself with films like “The Mask of Zorro” and “Entrapment,” leading to a successful Hollywood career by many measures. Now, every job she takes is out of pleasure. “I am enjoying this bit of a renaissance, this new chapter,“ she says.
Her outlook wasn’t always so peaceful, however. “I remember literally having nightmares on that Friday of box office numbers,” recalls Zeta-Jones. “It was really terrifying, and now everything’s a bonus, so the pressure’s off now.”
Asked about any piece of knowledge she would have liked to have known when she was Ortega’s age, the actress looked inward. “The biggest one for me, just in general in my career, in my life, is that you can’t please everybody,” says Zeta-Jones. “And you can’t be liked by everybody.”
Luis Guzmán and Catherine-Zeta Jones have had long careers in Hollywood, and both are effusive about Jenna Ortega’s work: “She’s got her head screwed on right.” (Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
For his part, Guzmán says the key to professional longevity is humility. With a resume as eclectic and consistent as his, he must be on to something. “Carlito’s Way,” “Boogie Nights” and “Punch-Drunk Love” feature some of his most memorable parts. And for his role in Soderbergh’s 1999 crime saga “The Limey,” Guzmán received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting male.
“Grounded” and not blinded by her “star power” is precisely how he thinks of Ortega. “She carries herself like a seasoned veteran,” he adds.
“This business could make you think that you’re the greatest thing alive. And you might be, but you’re also bound to remember where you come from,” he says. “Remember what steps you had to take in order to get to where you are at the moment. My philosophy when I work is I always want to be invited to the next party, and I’ve been invited to many parties.”
For Ortega, who’s been in front of the camera since she was 9 years old, the lesson she wishes she’d learned sooner was knowing how to assert her agency as an artist in an environment eager to diminish her.
“I wish I had felt more secure in my position or in myself,” says Ortega. “I felt like I was always having to be somebody else or put on another mask or face, because it’s hard getting jobs and there’s so much competition. There’s so much rejection, and I wasn’t always what they were going for.”
Now, with more power to be selective about her projects, Ortega no longer wants to be a “workhorse,” and she aims to dictate more closely where her time and energy go.
“I had been recommended to change myself for other people, which I think, as a young girl — that could probably be really confusing,” Ortega adds. “And I don’t know what that does on the psyche, but it’s something that I’ve learned now, more so in the recent years after all this stuff that I wish I had taken on much sooner.”
Jenna Ortega, who has been acting since she was a child, says she’s better at asserting herself now: “I felt like I was always having to be somebody else or put on another mask or face, because it’s hard getting jobs and there’s so much competition.”
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
Whatever self-possession Ortega thinks she may have lacked, Wednesday has it in spades. But does she hope that her performance, and the way she handles her professional life, could inspire young viewers? Perhaps even spark an interest in acting just like watching Dakota Fanning in “Man on Fire” did for her at a young age?
“It’s really hard for me to think about myself in that sense, but with a character like Wednesday, I do think she’s a good role model for girls, considering her strength and courage and confidence in herself,” Ortega says. “She doesn’t underestimate her power and is always pushing herself to learn more. She’s a curious individual.”
Curiosity is a trait that Ortega and Wednesday share. Even as she juggles a challenging schedule, the actor, whom Zeta-Jones describes as “well-read with an amazing knowledge of directors and movies of great historical importance,” still finds time to watch films and expand her artistic landscape.
“Sometimes it’s hard when you’re filming because too many stories can be a bit heavy on the mind,” Ortega says. “I read less books, but I still always watch at least a movie on the weekend. I’ll read plays because they’re a bit easier to pick up and put down and finish, so it doesn’t take from you too much and it’s still involved in my craft and the history of it all.”
Stardom born from diligent work does come with its dazzling perks. At Tudum, Ortega appeared on stage during Lady Gaga’s performance as part of a lugubrious ensemble. The pop star has a cameo appearance in this season of “Wednesday.”
“That was something that came up the night before,” says Ortega. “I didn’t have much time to think about it, but that seems like something you would be regretting for a very long time afterwards if you didn’t take her up on it.”
As she tries to balance spontaneity with strategy moving forward, Ortega, who doesn’t much enjoy pondering the future, might lean more on Guzmán and Zeta-Jones for advice on what it takes to build a long-lasting, fulfilling career amid hurdles and triumphs.
“Maybe I’ve got to talk to them a bit more about that instead of making silly jokes sometimes,” Ortega says. “I get very easily overwhelmed, and I’ve got to take things a day at a time before I start thinking too far in advance.”
