Jenna Ortega has been labelled as ‘entitled’, ‘selfish’ and ‘toxic’ by TV producer Steven DeKnight after claiming she ‘publicly shit’ on the producers and writers of Netflix's Wednesday.
DeKnight was responding to a debate on Twitter which followed comments Jenna made on 6th March when she appeared on the Dax Shepard podcast. The 20-year-old actor shared that she made changes to the script while on set, and even butted heads with the script supervisor, because she felt ‘very, very protective’ of her character.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down on a set in the way that I had to on Wednesday because it’s so easy to fall into that category, especially with this type of show,” Jenna said.
“Everything that she does, everything that I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle made no sense. There was a line about this dress that she has to wear for a school dance and she said, ‘Oh, my God, I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ And I had to go, ‘No, there’s no way.’”
Hynes White has strongly denied the allegations.
Jenna added: “There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional, in a sense, where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought that I was going with something, and then I would have to sit down with the writers and they would be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would to have to go through and explain why I couldn’t do certain things,” she said.
DeKnight wrote: “She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material.”
He added: “This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business.”
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Steven has since doubled-down on his comments, sort of, by calling Jenna ‘fantastic’, saying that it was ‘an unfortunate gaffe to say that in public’, and that ‘it was just an unfortunate situation to expose creative differences so publicly’. And it's not just Steven who thinks Jenna behaved inappropriately. Plenty of people in the comments agree that she was ‘disrespectful’, that she ‘doesn’t have to speak so publicly’ about changing lines, and that she's ‘airing out their laundry for praise’.
Admittedly, I wasn't on the set of Wednesday, I've never met Jenna Ortega, and I have no idea what working with her is like. It's possible that she may have been disrespectful to her colleagues. But really, that's besides the point. When was the last time you heard a man in the workplace – or a man anywhere – described as ‘entitled’ or ‘selfish’ for disagreeing with someone's opinion? The way women talk at work is scrutinised far more than men because women are expected to be ‘likeable’ at all times, even in a professional setting. If we display traditional ‘male’ behaviours such as assertiveness and forcefulness, we're brandished as ‘bitchy’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘bossy’. But if men aren't afraid to make their opinions heard at work, they're not entitled or selfish; they're simply displaying leadership qualities. He's not being ‘bossy’. He's the boss.
To me, the backlash Jenna is facing for speaking publicly about her disagreement with the Wednesday writers also reeks of sexist double standards. Plenty of male actors air their creative differences in public and aren't brandished as entitled or toxic. Robert Pattinson was incredibly vocal about how much he hated the Twilight books and movies. He called author Stephenie Meyer ‘mad’, said the books should never have been published, and said that he regained his ‘dignity’ when the franchise ended. I don't recall Pattinson being labelled ‘entitled’ or ‘selfish’ for his comments. In fact, most people found it pretty funny.
Ben Affleck mocked Armageddon in the actual DVD commentary he recorded for the film and made constant jokes about storyline and script. Richard Gere called Pretty Woman a ‘silly rom-com’. Brad Pitt called The Devil’s Own a ‘disaster’ and said they ‘made it up as they went along’.
Countless male actors have also demanded script changes in their films – Robert Downey Jr. in The Avengers, Tom Cruise in The Mummy, Ben Affleck in Gone Girl (in which he had a tiff with director David Fincher over which baseball cap his character would wear, and ended up halting production for four days) – and not made headlines or enraged the Twittersphere by doing so.
Given the enormous success of Wednesday – it brought in the largest amounts of viewers for a Netflix premiere last year, and became the most-watched English TV series in its first week with 341.2 million hours – it seems as though Jenna's changes to the scripts were necessary and successful. As one Twitter user said: “Based on what she said she changed, she probably saved the show. Good for her not letting writers ruin the character of Wednesday.”
Society just can't stomach women who aren't afraid to make their opinions heard and who aren't afraid to critique the work of men. Especially if they end up being right. And especially if the woman in question is just 20 years old.
