Oof, Wednesday's Most Iconic Scene Is Facing A Covid Controversy
The phrase "viral dance" now has a whole new meaning.
Turns out, Jenna Ortega was feeling like “Goo Goo Muck” while Wednesday Addams was getting her life to The Cramps’ song in Wednesday’s most iconic scene. And that revelation has totally soured Wednesday’s impressive dance routine for many fans. After Ortega admitted she had Covid while filming Wednesday, viewers have started calling out the decision as dangerous and irresponsible.
Wednesday fans were shocked when Ortega revealed she filmed her Rave’N choreography while she had Covid in a Nov. 10 NME profile. “It was my first day with Covid so it was awful to film,” Ortega said of the dance sequence. “I woke up and — it’s weird, I never get sick and when I do it’s not very bad — I had the body aches. I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus. They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”
Ortega didn’t know she had Covid at the time of filming; she’d taken a test and was waiting on the result. MGM, the studio that made Wednesday, told NME that “strict COVID protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from set.” Netflix echoed that message in a statement to Buzzfeed.
The dance number, which occurs in the middle of Episode 4, quickly became the most popular scene in Wednesday, taking over TikTok as the app’s latest dance trend and wowing viewers even more after Ortega revealed she choreographed it herself. But after viewers learned Ortega was risking the spread of Covid among the rest of the cast and crew while filming that dance, many people are looking at it in a whole new light. In particular, fans are upset that the Covid story might be perceived as someone pushing through hardship to make great art, rather than a dangerous and avoidable misjudgment on production’s part.
The backlash has been pretty split between fans calling out Ortega for showing up to work while experiencing Covid symptoms and others blaming the producers and decision-makers on set for going through with the shoot.
Neither Ortega nor her costar Hunter Doohan, with whom she interacts throughout her dance, have commented on the controversy.
You can find full guidance on what to do if you are positive for COVID-19 on the WHO and CDC websites.
