Jenna Ortega on her insane WEDNESDAY shooting schedule, saying she cried hysterically, ‘I haven’t slept’ and ‘I pulled my hair out’

The Netflix series Wednesday has been a huge success for the streamer and fans are looking forward to a second season. But making the first season was no easy feat. According to the star of the show, Jenna Ortega, the shooting schedule was grueling and hardly sustainable. Ortega explained at a Q&A panel hosted by Netflix in Hollywood last week:

“It was necessary to show up to set two hours early, do that 12-14 hour day, then go home and then get on Zoom and take the class I had. Or show up at my apartment, my cello teacher was already waiting for me. He always kept going, and if you could do it on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting on the sixth day of that week, it was ‘Okay, then, we’ll start your lessons that day.’”

The actor said he began taking fencing and cello lessons a couple of months before filming, continuing throughout the eight-month shoot in Romania. He said the “Paint it Black” cello sequence was particularly difficult to master, as he had to change teachers when she moved overseas and accurately represent a piece done for two cellos with one.

“I haven’t slept at all. I tore my hair out. There are so many FaceTime calls my dad answered about me crying hysterically.

Ortega pressured herself not to disappoint the cellists who watched the show, notwithstanding Wednesday director and executive producer Tim Burton assuring her, “Oh, don’t worry, you’ll do great. It’s going to be amazing,” the actor said, adding:

“I didn’t even know where my hands were supposed to go and then I had to pop two cellos out of one cello, which was ridiculous.”

The star wanted to film as much action as possible on Wednesday, but as filming on the show neared its end, time constraints got in the way.

“We started wasting time because Wednesday is in pretty much every scene. They had to start using stunt doubles or occasionally cello stunt doubles if they didn’t have time to get their hands on them, but I was very adamant about being as prepared as possible because I wanted them to be able to use myself, because it’s so much more believable if i could see your face.

These revelations follow Ortega’s December 2022 sharing that he had COVID while filming the iconic Wednesday dance that went viral on TikTok. Ortega is a soldier and he has definitely passed the ringer by bringing us this amazing series! I watched it with my family and my kids have been watching it on a loop since we finished. It’s really fun and they put on a great show. Hopefully now that Ortega has taken all of these lessons and mastered these new skills, he won’t have such a rigorous schedule next season. A girl has to sleep, after all.

via: variety