‘Wednesday’: 5 Strict Rules The Cast Had To Follow (Jenna Ortega Shouldn’t Blink)

Although Jenna Ortega didn’t seek Christina Ricci’s advice to play Merlina in “Wednesday,” there were other behind-the-scenes decisions that weren’t voted on by the cast and became rules to follow.

The Netflix series by Tim Burton is already one of the great successes of the platform thanks to its high quality, as the director made sure to take care of every detail.

Among the ideas he had were several strict rules for the cast to follow, to ensure that the filming and portrayal of the characters were exactly as Burton wanted them to be. Here are some of those rules.

Jenna Ortega should not blink on Wednesday

In an interview for the ‘Teen Vouge’ YouTube channel on November 16, 2022, Jenna Ortega talked about how she transformed into Merlina and revealed that Burton asked her not to blink.

According to the actress, in the first scenes they shot, she got into character and, without realizing it, kept her face serious and never blinked. Burton loved this and told him to keep it up, unblinking, throughout the shoot.

The fingers had to be played by an actor and not CGI

The character of Fingers (Thing) in ‘Wednesday’ has become an audience favorite as he is Merlina’s faithful companion in adventure. Plus, it shows a lot of personality even though it’s only one arm.

This is due to the rule Burton set for the character, as he always wanted an actor to be on set moving his hand to interact with Jenna and the rest of the cast, rather than creating the character with special effects.

In an interview with Screen Rant on Nov. 23, Jenna Ortega herself confirmed this directive and talked about all the behind-the-scenes work that went into bringing Fingers to life.

The actors of “Wednesday” had strict schedules

In the interview with ‘Teen Vogue’, Jenna revealed that to record the series she had a very strict schedule: she would wake up at 4:30 a.m., get picked up at 5:20 a.m., at 6:00 a.m. m. the make-up area and wardrobe and the recording started at 8:30.

The actress ate lunch and then had to practice the danger scenes at 6:00 p.m., attend cello lessons at 7:00 p.m. and finally at 20:00 he could go back home to get some rest and come back to do everything the next day. .

Something similar had to happen to actor Victor Dorobantu, who played Fingers in the series, because a Netflix press release clarified that he spent up to three hours in the make-up and wardrobe room.

This process was very long because his hand had to be painted and the marks and stitches placed every day, in addition to the actor wearing a blue suit all over his body to be erased from the footage later with the computer.

Enid’s actress had to help define the character’s colorful style

Emma Myers brings Enid Sinclair to life in the Netflix series. She is Merlina’s roommate at Nevermore Academy and the two characters are complete opposites, since Enid is a lover of colors, social networks and gossip.

To portray Enid’s outgoing and happy personality on screen, the actress had to be part of the creative process and choose from her signature nail polish to colorful sweaters.

This was revealed by Emma herself in an interview with ‘Elite Daily’ on November 23, 2022, as she explained that she was involved in the work of creating Enid and making sure she was as “rainbow” as possible.

Jenna Ortega had to learn another language for “Wednesday”

As part of her preparation to play Merlina in the series, the production had Jenna Ortega learn various skills, including playing the cello, shooting a bow and arrow, rowing a boat and practicing fencing.

But one of the most impressive things she had to do was to learn another language, in this case it was German because there is a scene where Merlina talks to tourists and she says a lot of phrases in that language.