MOVIE NEWS – MGM, the company behind Wednesday, has come under harsh criticism after Jenna Ortega revealed she had Covid-19 while filming her “viral” dance scene.

Unsurprisingly, actress Jenna Ortega has received a lot of praise for her recent performance in the lead role of Tim Burton’s horror-comedy series Wednesday. Yet, despite the critical acclaim, Buzzfeed News noted that Wednesday has come in for severe criticism after Ortega revealed to NME that she had Covid-19 while filming the famous dance scene in the new Tim Burton series.

The actor had initially been chatting about the killer moves she used for Wednesday Addams’ wonderfully weird dance. “I choreographed that myself!” She proudly declared.

“I’m not a dancer and I’m sure that’s obvious. I’d gotten the song [The Cramps’ 1981 single ‘Goo Goo Muck’] about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could… .” She then surprised the outlet by saying, “It’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film.”

Ortega also revealed how it felt on Covid-19. “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. I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus. They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”

Harshly criticised for filming Jenna Ortega battling COVID-19 disease

MGM (the production company behind the series) told NME in an email that “strict COVID protocols were followed, and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from set.” Buzzfeed reports that despite this, many were less than thrilled about the situation. Sharing some of the Redditors’ reactions, one user wrote: “It’s such a failure of those in charge and so disrespectful to anyone on set who is high risk or lives with someone who is.”

Another user commented, “It’s not even a one on one shot,it was literally a whole dance club scene with a lot of people involved. I don’t blame Jenna because she informed them in time but I think it was highly irresponsible of the makers to continue the shoot especially since it involved a crowd.”

While a third wrote: “This is irresponsible practice for a production this large. Anyone who is even remotely symptomatic is supposed to be kept off of set until the test returns with a result.”

“I’m sure her being positive on set like this caused spread to other cast members, crew, as well as background performers. I’d be so upset if I were on this show!”

Source: Buzzfeed News, NME