Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s new series Wednesday is raved over by many fans and critics.
In an interview with to USA Today, Ortega revealed her favourite line from the show. “I’ll remember that for the rest of my life,” Ortega said about first reading that line in the script. “I don't know, maybe it's the flesh. It really got me.”
The new live-action version, directed by Tim Burton, is a spin-off Sonenfeld-directed franchise in the ’90s The Addams Family and the 1993 sequel Addams Family Values.
While the character has been portrayed onscreen multiple times, Ortega essays the teenage version of the character which has never been done before. And, there is definitely a fresh light in which we witness the queen of macabre.
And that iconic trait is particularly defined as she delivers the line “I break out into hives and the flesh peels off my bones.”
In the first episode, after Wednesday is expelled from her school for releasing piranhas in the swimming pool, she is sent to Nevermore Academy. Accompanied by her family, Wednesday steps into the room at Ophelia Hall, she meets her new excited and very colourful roommate, Enid (Emma Meyes).
Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones) says her daughter Wednesday – who's horrified this girl might hug her – is “allergic to colour,” and Enid asks what that means. “I break out into hives and the flesh peels off my bones,” she deadpans.
Per the outlet, the director Tim Burton praised the actress for striking "the right balance" by being true to Wednesday "without softening her character," while "showing sort of a humanness underneath it."
Ortega also added that she became protective of the character, to “not sacrifice who she was for the sake of a teen television series. I learned a lot about using my voice. I’ve never quite fought for a character like that before.”