Jenna Ortega Shares How Wednesday Role Encouraged Her To Be ‘More Adventurous’

Jenna Ortega is getting candid about how her role in the hit Netflix series “Wednesday” changed her style-wise and personally.

The 20-year-old actress revealed in a new interview with Vogue how her role as Wednesday Addams, for which she cut bangs and dyed her virgin hair black, helped her feel freer and more creative.

“Up until then I was really, really attached to my long hair,” Ortega, who sheared her hair into a “wolf cut” last year, told the magazine. “Changing it encouraged me to be more adventurous; to experiment and be more creative in that way.”

Her character’s signature goth aesthetic was also well-received. She admitted that seeing “#Wednesdaycore” photos on social media made her feel seen, adding that it has always been a part of her.

“I’ve always respected goth culture. I’ve always had a darker sense of humor, but I never felt like I was able to express that. Now I feel like I can embrace those qualities in myself,” the “Scream VI” star explained.

Ortega has several projects in the works. She is currently shooting a film with The Weeknd and just recently wrapped up filming on two other highly-anticipated movies. She has also been named the new face of fragrance Gris Dior.

She told Vogue that it was “really exciting” to be involved with the iconic French house and work with fashion legends Bardia Zeinali and Mikael Jansson on the campaign. She loved the fragrance’s super balanced unisex notes and found its bottle “cute on its own.”

“I felt like I was really encouraged to be myself—I felt throughout the entire process that I could go with my own gut instinct and do whatever felt authentic and natural to me,” she said of the campaign.

Ortega admitted that feeling safe to be herself and being seen were relatively new to her because she was a “people pleaser” growing up.

“I mean, I’ve been acting for over a decade now, so I know what it’s like to not necessarily be heard or feel like I have a voice,” she explained. “I kind of had a hard time growing up because I was such a people pleaser; I was so desperate to be whatever I felt people wanted me to be. And I felt like the traditional beauty standards really affected me; they didn’t always resonate with me.”

Last month, Ortega appeared on the “Armchair Expert” podcast, where she opened up about how she changed Wednesday’s dialogue without consulting the series’ writers and admitted that she “became almost unprofessional” at times on set because she didn’t like how her character was penned.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on ‘Wednesday,'” Ortega said. “Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense.”

Ortega said she became very protective of Wednesday, adding: “There were a lot of battles because I felt like people didn’t always trust me when I was creating my patch in terms of, ‘OK, this is her arc. This is where she gets emotional.'”

“I was completely lost and confused. Typically I have no problem using my voice, but when you’re in it — I just remember feeling defeated after the first month,” she shared.