Jenna Ortega in “Wednesday” Season 1.
NetflixWednesday star Jenna Ortega recalls the daunting task of learning to play cello in a new video clip from director Tara Wood’s upcoming Tim Burton Docuseries.
Ortega appears in the fourth episode of the unofficially named four-part Tim Burton Docuseries, which held its premiere with the unveiling of Episode 1 at the Tribeca Film Festival in the summer of 2024.
The docuseries also features Wood’s interviews with several of Tim Burton’s closest collaborators, including Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Keaton, Christopher Walken, Christoph Waltz, Mia Wasikowska and Danny DeVito.
The episodes chronicle everything from Burton’s childhood to the release of the director’s 2024 blockbuster Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which in addition to Keaton reprising his role as “The Ghost with the Most,” stars Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and Ortega as Deetz family members Lydia, Delia and Astrid.
Before the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton first collaborated with Ortega in 2022 on Season 1 of The Addams Family spinoff series Wednesday, which stars the actor in the title role.
During her time at Nevermore Academy, Wednesday shows off her skills as an expert cellist. That provided a challenge for Ortega off-screen, though, since she didn’t play cello before being cast in the role.
Watch Ortega discuss the challenge in the video clip below that first appeared on Screen Rant.
Danny Elfman Helped Jenna Ortega With Her Cello Playing On Wednesday
Lucky for Jenna Ortega, Tim Burton’s longtime music collaborator Danny Elfman was able to step in to help the actor learn the instrument with sharp precision.
“The thing about it is Danny is such an overachiever and so artistically brilliant,” Ortega says in the new clip from the docuseries. “It technically should be played by two cellos but because Wednesday is this magical being she just has to play it on one.”
When it came to filming her cello playing, Ortega said she was assured by Burton that everything was going to look great.
“I’ve never been more uncertain in my life,” Ortega says, laughing, in the clip from the docuseries. “Tim knew that I was nervous and he said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. Just as long as your chin is down and you do what you’re doing, you’re all good.’”
Reflecting on her interview with Ortega for the Tim Burton Docuseries, Tara Wood said the actor was an “amazing” person to talk with about her work with the director because she fits completely within Burton’s oeuvre of stories.
“She said she’s still an outsider, she still feels weird, and she still feels like she doesn’t fit in but she’s very proud of it,” Wood said in an exclusive Zoom conversation about her docuseries.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Wood added, is that Ortega is schooled in the same stories as Burton, including the director’s love for old-school horror genre.
“She loves monster movies and she’s so versed in everything,” Wood said. “Her worldliness and her confidence make it feel like she’s been here forever.”
Wood’s four-part Tim Burton Docuseries is seeking distribution and is still awaiting a release date. Jenna Ortega will reprise her title role in Wednesday Season 2, which will be released sometime in 2025 on Netflix.
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