Jenna Ortega has been killing it in Netflix’s new hit show Wednesday, but there’s one detail that has left fans upset. In the Tim Burton-directed series, Ortega, who plays the eponymous role, busts out her kookiest moves at the Rave’N Dance to the beat of The Cramps’ 1981 song “Goo Goo Muck.”
However, the actor recently revealed in an interview with NME that she had COVID while performing the dance number.
“I’m not a dancer and I’m sure that’s obvious. I got the song about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could… it’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film,” she told the outlet.
When asked a follow-up question, Ortega replied, “Yeah, 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,” then described having other common COVID symptoms like a sore throat.
She added, “They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”
Ortega also told NME that she requested to re-shoot the scene, but was denied because of time constraints.
While Ortega’s flippancy in discussing the matter insinuated that it was a lighthearted story which (hopefully) resulted in no casualties, people on the internet were shocked by the production team’s decision to have her film while under the weather.
“Jenna Ortega filming a whole scene while waiting for her Covid test results and with obvious symptoms isn’t ‘professional,’ it’s just completely irresponsible,” tweeted one user.
Another said, “Jenna Ortega having COVID on set and working unmasked around other unmasked performers is not a flex. She should not be praised for ‘working while sick.’ The above the line crew could’ve possibly disabled or killed someone for their irresponsibility.”
i love jenna ortega but why on earth does she sound like she's bragging about working while super sick and waiting on her covid test…which ended up being positive. why is exposing the entire cast and crew to a severe virus such a flex??
— j. (@sadlittlejuice) November 28, 2022
jenna ortega filming that dance scene while she had covid is not impressive, it’s horrible. absolutely callous disregard for her coworkers.
— Teresa (@teresawprice) December 3, 2022
A third wrote, “I’m seeing so many people respond to finding out Jenna Ortega had COVID whilst filming the dance scene with ‘omg, how dedicated is she?!’ when my first reaction upon hearing it was absolute horror for her and the people around her.”
A representative from MGM, the production studio behind Wednesday, told Decider in an email, “Strict COVID protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from set.”
Wednesday is currently streaming on Netflix.
