Jenna Ortega did her Wednesday audition covered in fake blood from X filming

24 November 2022, 13:34 | Updated: 19 April 2024, 09:46

Jenna Ortega explains how her Wednesday Addams is different from the others

By Katie Louise Smith

Jenna had just finished filming a scene from horror movie X when she auditioned for Wednesday.

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In case you needed another reason to prove why Jenna Ortega is the absolute perfect actor to portray the delightfully sadistic, gloomy and gore-loving queen Wednesday Addams, here it is.

During the press tour for Wednesday, Jenna has shared several anecdotes about how she herself is often attracted to more darker projects and darker topics of interest (like murder podcasts and serial killers). The Gen Z star is well on her way to becoming a fully-fledged iconic scream queen, and her recent role in the horror movie X might have even had a little something to do with making her Wednesday audition memorable.

Jenna was actually still filming X in New Zealand when she jumped on Zoom to audition for the role of Wednesday. And during one session, she showed up in full makeup from the shoot – fake blood included.

Jenna Ortega was still covered in blood from her X scene when she auditioned for Wednesday. Picture: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency, A24 via Alamy

Revealing the hilarious story in her interview with Wired, Jenna recalled the moment she met Wednesday director and executive producer Tim Burton over Zoom, right after filming a scene where her X character, Lorraine, had been [SPOILER ALERT!] shot in the head.

The prosthetic gunshot wound she wore for the scene also ended up giving her a real life cut, so she had that going on too.

"It was funny because when I met Tim Burton for my Wednesday audition, I had just finished doing that [scene]," Jenna revealed. "So I had stage blood and glycerin sweat in my hair, and a massive cut on my face and had been up for over 24 hours."

"I got on Zoom and he actually laughed. It made me laugh. I thought it was endearing."

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Donning fake blood while auditioning for Wednesday? Perhaps the most on-brand thing Jenna could have done.

Elsewhere in the same interview, and also very on-brand for the actor playing Wednesday Addams, Jenna admitted that she used to "perform autopsies" on dead little animals as a kid.

"I'm a weirdo in the 'used to perform autopsies on little animals when I was younger' kind of way," she revealed. "Like little lizards that I found that were dead in my backyard."

Wednesday would be so proud.