Jenna Ortega talks about her viral Wednesday dance

• Wednesday Addams has become a popular dancing queen thanks to Jenna Ortega.
• The actress wanted to choreograph the dance herself.
• To prepare, she watched videos of ’70s rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees and Lene Lovich.

Wednesday Addams has become a popular dancing queen thanks to Jenna Ortega.

If you enjoy the new Addams Family spinoff series Wednesday on Netflix, chances are your social media algorithm has inundated you with TikTok videos of young people and adults imitating the dramatic dance that the actress who plays Wednesday Addams featured on the show did. Ortega spoke about how her now-famous dance came to be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on December 16.

“Initially, they wanted a flash mob, but I thought, no, there’s no way Wednesday would be cool with dancing and encouraging a bunch of people,” the actress said. “The director, Tim Burton, and I talked about it a little bit, and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s not do a circle. Let’s have it be her own thing.'”

The 20-year-old continued, “A week before we shot the dance, he chose the [1981] song ‘Goo Goo Muck’ by The Cramps. And The Cramps is one of my favorite bands ever, so I was super excited, super pumped.”

Ortega told Jimmy Fallon she wanted to choreograph the dance herself. “[Burton] was like, ‘I know you’ve got it. You’ve been working on it. I’m not even worried about it. I trust you.’ And I said, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, it’s all so good.'”

There was just one small problem. “I had not gone over it at all,” the actress said, adding, “Oh, my God. I was kicking myself. I felt like such a fool. I’m not a dancer. I don’t do any of that. I have no experience in that field. I didn’t sleep for two days.”

Ortega said to prepare for the dance, she watched videos of ’70s rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees and rock singers Lene Lovich and Nina Hagen, “archival footage of goth kids dancing in clubs in the ’80s” and of French actor Denis Lavant in the 1999 film Beau Travail.

With her dance, the actress also paid tribute to Lisa Loring, who, at age 6, originated the onscreen role of Wednesday Addams in the ’60s comedy series The Addams Family. “I did a little bit of her shuffle that she does,” Ortega said. “And, of course, they cut out of camera when I did do it, but it’s there, I know it is.”

Ortega said Netflix officials told her that her dance was “gonna be a thing on TikTok.” She added, “And then they were right.”

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