Tim Burton Had An Odd Request For Wednesday Star
Tim Burton is certainly an odd dude, or at least he makes pretty odd movies that manage to combine whimsy with the macabre, but Wednesday star Jenna Ortega also fielded an odd request from the director when filming the series. Talking to Teen Vogue, Ortega detailed the filming process saying “At some point during the first couple weeks of shooting, I did a take where I did not blink at all. And Tim said, ‘I don’t want you to blink anymore.'”
Of course, Tim Burton’s request does fit the character pretty well. Ortega played Wednesday Addams in the series, the deadpan daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams who is attending school, learning her psychic abilities, and attempting to solve a mystery about her parents in the series. Giving her character traits like these certainly helps to sell the darker personality of Wednesday.
Tim Burton serves as executive producer and director on four of the eight episodes of Wednesday. The series was created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and stars Jenna Ortega along with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Isaac Ordonez, Gwendoline Christie, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Riki Lindhome, Hunter Doohan, Jamie McShane, Fred Armisen, Percy Hynes White, George Burcea, William Houston, Georgie Farmer, Naomi J. Ogawa, Victor Dorobantu, Iman Marson, Tommie Earl Jenkins, Calum Ross, and Christina Ricci. Ricci, of course, played the character in the 1991 Addams Family film and the 1993 sequel.
Whatever Tim Burton and Jenna Ortega decided to do with Wednesday, it definitely seems to be working. The series recently smashed a Netflix record by drawing in a jaw-dropping 341.23 million hours viewed during its first week of availability on the streaming platform. Surprisingly, this managed to beat Stranger Things 4, which already had quite an established fanbase.
Although Tim Burton’s name is a draw on its own and Wednesday is a popular character from the Addams Family IP, it’s still surprising that the series managed to pull in such huge numbers for its very first season. It now has the crown for most hours viewed in a week for any Netflix English-language series. The Korean series Squid Game holds the all-time record with 571.8 million hours viewed, which will likely be pretty hard to beat (especially if the second season takes the crown).
In addition to drawing in huge viewership numbers, Tim Burton’s Wednesday is also receiving pretty solid critical praise. The critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is sitting at 69% right now and the audience score is 88%, so plenty of people are enjoying the series. Particular praise is being given to Jenna Ortega’s performance as the titular character, while detractors have likened the show to a CW drama.
It doesn’t seem like those detractors will slow down the success of Tim Burton’s Wednesday much at all, as the series is in the Top 10 Netflix shows in 93 countries this week and is sitting at number one for 83 countries. There are sure to be more viewers in the coming weeks who want to see what the fuss is all about, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the show maintained its status in the Top 10 for a little while longer. If you want to check out the show for yourself, you can now stream the entire first season on Netflix.
