‘Wednesday’: Netflix wanted character-defining line cut from show
Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have revealed that Netflix wanted to cut a character-defining line from the show.
Speaking to IndieWire, the pair behind the new Addams Family spin-off said that they were keen to add a new dimension to the protagonist (played by Jenna Ortega), giving her plenty of time away from her family as she’s enrolled at a school for outcasts.
One thing they were sure to keep intact, however, was the macabre nature of the original TV series and Tim Burton’s movies. And when Netflix insisted on changing a specific piece of dialogue, Gough and Millar pushed back.
The line in question comes when Wednesday’s roommate Enid (Emma Meyers) encourages her to “take a stab at being social”, to which Wednesday responds: “I do like stabbing.”
In the end, the line remained in the series. “That’s the whole point of the character,” Millar said. “To lose that or dilute that is a betrayal of the character.”
Elsewhere, Ortega recently revealed the line from the show that she will “remember for the rest of her life”.
In the first episode, when Wednesday meets Enid at Nevermore Academy, her mother, Morticia Addams (Catherine Zeta-Jones), explains that her daughter is “allergic to colour”.
Asked what happens to her by Enid, Wednesday replies: “I break out into hives and then the flesh peels off my bones.”
Speaking to USA Today about reading the line for the first time, Ortega said: “I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. I don’t know, maybe it’s the flesh. It really got me.”
In our four-star review of Wednesday, NME wrote: “Wednesday ends up a rare spin-off success story. It’s creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky – and an absolute treat.”
The post ‘Wednesday’: Netflix wanted character-defining line cut from show appeared first on NME.
Chris Edwards
NME
