Elle Fanning, 25, and Jenna Ortega, 20, learned a lot from their roles as Catherine the Great and Wednesday Addams (respectively). Hulu’s “The Great” and Netflix’s “Wednesday” taught them not only the craft of acting, but also how producing can free them from toxic workplace dynamics. The former child stars spoke to each other about their adult lives and how they’re navigating the pressures of social media, a topic that brought Ortega to tears.
Elle Fanning: Are you a good auditioner? I’m terrible. I passed out once. I think I was 12 years old. But then I bought Pinkberry and Burger King, and I thought, “This is amazing!” They make me so nervous.
Jenna Ortega: I had a really bad experience, including screaming. The first time I had to scream for an audition, it was a three-hour drive, and my mom said, “Do you want to practice?” And I said to her, “No, I understand.” She went in and didn’t have it. My voice cracked. She was so frustrated because she had sacrificed so much for me to get out. She felt terrible. Have you ever been yelled at by a casting director?
Fanning: No, I have never been yelled at.
Ortega: I am sorry.
Fanning: So they yelled at you for saying sorry?
Ortega: Yes, because I kept cutting off my monologue by saying, “Oh, I’m sorry.” I messed it up. ” Did you attend public school?
Fanning: I was homeschooled until 4th grade. And when I was about nine years old, I thought, “Mom, I don’t have any friends.” So instead of going to college, I ended up attending a private school in LA.
Ortega: Neither did I. I really wanted to do that.
Fanning: I have to talk about “Wednesday”. you are absolute perfection. Not a single word or physicality is out of place. I love snaps.
Ortega: I thought it was amazing how they incorporated that into the story. Your program is very interesting. For me, comedy acting is much more difficult.
Fanning: Agree. Sometimes I read the script for The Great and I’m like, “Oh, I want people to laugh at that moment. I hope they do.” But now that we’re in Season 3, the world of comedy… I’m getting used to it a little. I am very curious about your physical characteristics on Wednesday. It looks a bit like a spider.
Ortega: Because I think I look like a pug. This is what I thought. “Can you scare me any more? You should never move, you should look at people seriously, and maybe it will work.”
Fanning: Speaking of stillness, Neon Demon is a movie I made. There’s an opening shot, and he’s playing dead, and he’s making contact…I’ve never lost a staring contest, but it was like 11 minutes, so his eyes were open the entire time, and the lights were on. It was so bright — and they melted the contacts around my eyes. They were burned into my eyes.
Ortega: no way. Don’t even get close. All you were staring at was you blinking at the other person’s line.
Fanning: I know you’ll be a producer next season.
Ortega: This is the first time. It was a natural progression. She’s a beloved character like Wednesday, so we didn’t want to misunderstand her. So I tried to have as many conversations as possible with the writers. We decide what works and what doesn’t. We wanted to be able to start discussions sooner for a second season. I’m very interested. I want to see costumes, new characters, and scripts. This is also my first time producing a TV series.
Fanning: yes. When you start acting at a young age, you start to want to have more independence. And the advice is always “make your own work.” For a long time, I felt like, “Oh, I have to listen to adults.” But if you think about it, we’ve been acting for a very long time and have been on a lot of sets. We are allowed to have opinions. I learned to advocate for myself.
Ortega: “Wednesday” made me come out of my shell. Being a young woman in this industry, sometimes people don’t take you as seriously. I’m just an actor, so I’ve had some crazy conversations with people at places I’ve stayed. You become a puppet. But the best experience I’ve ever had at work is when everyone’s voice is always heard. Everyone participates.
Fanning: And you could be wrong too!
Ortega: one hundred percent. I feel like a kid in a candy store. But at the same time, I’m still at the stage where I’m sending the wrong emails to 3 of my girlfriends.
Fanning: I love the whole editing process.
Ortega: Oh, I never thought of that. So do they send you a daily report or something like that every day?
Fanning: Yeah.
Ortega: I’ve never had emails sent every day before.
Fanning: Oh my god. It is very fun. I want to be an editor. What kind of loot will Season 2 give us?
Ortega: We’re still tweaking it, but we decided we wanted to lean more into horror. We let go of all romantic attachments, and that’s a really great thing. We’re getting bolder and darker. I’ve never had to do a full-fledged historical drama before. Did you have to do anything to ensure the content was accurate?
Fanning: I threw away my history books. She came across this rumor that she had sex with a horse. In a way, this is the first form of slut-shaming, because she had many lovers and she loved sex. I needed to create our own version of Catherine, who wasn’t always the strongest woman in the room. I love complicated women. I’d like to play a bad girl.
You have Instagram. Did it explode after “Wednesday”?
Ortega: Yeah. Probably three days after the show came out, there was a very obvious change in my life.
Fanning: What is your relationship with that thing? To me, that can be toxic.
Ortega: Yeah, it gets ugly. When I was younger, I was taken to media trainings such as Disney 101, where I was told: This is how you get followers, promote your show, and promote it. ” When you go to an audition or a meeting, you might be asked, “How many followers do you have?”
Fanning: I was never able to participate because I didn’t have enough followers. They’re like, “You were great, but your numbers are.”
Ortega: Even after filming “Wednesday,” when I was auditioning, they came to my team. “We like her, but we don’t know if she has a good enough name for her.” And what does social media do for anyone our age? It’s very much a comparison game. is. It feeds into the bandwagon mentality. It’s so manipulative. After a show, I get really nervous to post or say anything or even be myself.
Fanning: …It may be misunderstood.
Ortega: Yeah. I have a natural tendency to be sarcastic and dry, so I tend to get into trouble. I want people to get to know the people behind the camera and understand that you shouldn’t disrespect people. And the more I expose myself to the world, the more people will prey on it and take advantage of it. They see your weakness and twist it in ways you don’t necessarily expect. [Starts to cry] It’s very strange. Sorry, I didn’t mean to do this.
Fanning: No, it’s okay.
Ortega: It’s very difficult to balance. Because how can you be honest without risking your own health and safety? It’s very easy to feel almost out of control.
Fanning: You need to protect yourself, but you need to know when to clean up and know that it’s okay. That’s not the real world.
Ortega: I still have a strong urge to be human, honest, and authentic. Another thing about this industry is that when you get in front of the camera, people expect you to be something else. So things like “Please have more energy” or “Could you please smile?” And that’s just disgusting. And I don’t want to feel gross. I’d rather people see me cry or do something than be something I’m not.
Set design: Lucy Holt. Producer: Alexei Galetsky/AGPNYC