Jenna Ortega entered 2022 as a Disney Channel star. She left it a certified scream queen, thanks to her performances in scream and Xand a goth icon.
The actress was cast as Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s Wednesdaybreaking a previously established viewership record Stranger things. The Tim Burton-directed series has its own viral “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” moment in a scene where a “weird girl” dance to “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps. “Thanks to Siouxsie Sioux, Bob Fosse’s Rich Man’s Frug, Lisa Loring, Lene Lovich, Denis Lavant and archival footage of goths dancing in clubs in the 80s. Helped me with this, “Ortega tweeted. Her commitment to authenticity has not gone unnoticed.
BuzzFeed reports that real-life goths (not her X co-star) share their appreciation for Ortega on TikTok. “Attention, goth girls! Were you compared to Wednesday Addams growing up? Was the greeting “Hey, Morticia” used against you in a not-so-friendly way? Tired of seeing the people who mock your style embrace Addams Family aesthetics? You may be entitled to monetary compensation,” one user wrote, while another added, “You can certainly tell the people who watched Wednesday and never experienced goth culture, because they mock the way on which she dances. All of you, it’s Wednesday Addams. It’s not Addison Rae, okay?’
Ortega’s Wednesday is also the weird rendering many have been looking for:
the characters on wednesday saw a very weird freaky goth girl freak out and immediately became obsessed with her… the charms of insane girls really never fade
— sybil grimalkin (@joblessthursday) November 28, 2022
young people need Wednesday Addams and weird goth girl representation in general so they know it’s going to be okay
— cat 🧡🤍💗 (@lunalesbian) November 26, 2022
I mean, she’s Wednesday Addams. I actually didn’t expect her to be a good dancer. This was epic! Perfectly embodied the weird goth girl! 😂 https://t.co/7HwC94mOtG
— ÆSPA DEFENDER (@aespa_defender) November 26, 2022
Wednesday was absolutely perfect
I liked it so much. I love the era of the weird goth girls so much.
Chilling Adventure’s of Sabrina was great too but got a little weird at the end but I still liked it. So I hope Wednesday goes weird in the right way.— Harley 🐀 Maul Opress’s Wife™ (@GnarlyShins) November 26, 2022
i haven’t even seen wednesday yet but i’m glad we get a weird goth girl mc i feel seen by that scene where she dances like a little freak
— ♱ lexi ♱ (@lexishifts) November 28, 2022
You can enjoy the dance sequence for yourself below.
(Through BuzzFeed)