Wednesday star Gina Ortega has revealed that she almost turned down playing the Addams Family character Wednesday in the Netflix series.
In a new interview published in The Sunday Times, Ortega revealed that she was initially ambivalent about playing the main character in Tim Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday. In fact, she admitted that she turned down the role “many times” before finally accepting it.
Ortega explained, according to Deadline: “I got the email, and I ignored it. I’ve made a lot of soap operas in my life, and all I wanted to do was make films. I was afraid that if I accepted making another soap opera, it might prevent me from doing other roles that I really wanted and cared about.”
Prior to Wednesday, Ortega starred in the horror films Scream and X. She was keen to focus on her growing film career, but said she was persuaded to return to the role on Wednesday Addams after meeting with series director and executive producer Tim Burton.
“The only reason I’m coming back is because Tim is such a legend and we get along really well together,” she said, although she admitted there was still some hesitation on her part.
On Wednesday, Ortega plays the eccentric Wednesday Addams, the famous daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams. The series became a huge hit on Netflix and has become one of the most watched series of all time.