It is the day of the little girl symbol of the gothic culture and feminism, Wednesday Addams, is the day of Tim Burton and his dreams and nightmares of childhood and adolescence. At Lucca Comics & Games, in world premiere, the first episode of the new series “Wednesday” – available on Netflix from November 23 – with the actress Jenna Ortega (seen in “Jane the Virgin” and “Scream” of 2022), signed by the visionary master of cinema, Tim Burton.
The eight episodes (Burton directs the first four and is executive producer on the project) focus on the brilliant, laconic and dangerous firstborn, here a teenager, of the iconic Addams family, for a teen comedy, mystery, fantasy and “a bit horror” story Burton says at a press conference at “Lucca Comics & Games”. And he adds: “I always felt like Wednesday as a teenager, I could very well have been her. I had the same black and white point of view. She has always been represented as a child, but I was interested in seeing how she reacted in school, with the teachers, to going to therapy ”. Created in the 1930s by Charles Addams, in a comic version, “The Addams family“, As funny as it is dark, has returned to the big and small screen several times. “I grew up watching the series and above all reading comics – explains the director, who had also started a project that was later abandoned for a stop motion film on the subject -. ‘The Addams Family’ is the emblem of the strange family, as basically all families are “. Then “most children are embarrassed by their parents … imagine having Morticia as a mother, she would go crazy” always says the director. Telling Wednesday also brings Burton back to dealing with issues such as self-acceptance and one’s own emotionality. “I have had mental health problems for half of my life and I identify with Wednesday – he points out-. For me it is a source of inspiration. She is very clear, direct, she says what she feels. This leads her to get into trouble with others, but on a symbolic level she has a silent and simple strength that is very important to me ”.
In the series we find the protagonist (Ortega) who after an ‘accident’ in the previous high school is enrolled by her parents Morticia (Catherine Zeta Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman) at the school they had also attended, the Nevermore Academy, specialized in educating “monsters, freaks and outcasts” (among the famous students of the past Edgar Allan Poe) directed by the principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie). For the laconic teenager it is an opportunity to do a series of bizarre encounters but also to start investigating a series of violent and inexplicable murders. In the cast, among others, also Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley Addams), Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Joy Sunday, Naomi J Ogawa, Riki Lindhome and Christina Riccihere a teacher of the school, and already extraordinary interpreter of Wednesday in the films of 1991 and 1993.
“Wednesday goes to an outcast school and she feels rejected among the outcasts – adds Burton – is what I have felt all my life, towards school, parents, others. This project corresponds to me“. It’s a iconic character and there would have been no series without Jenna – he stresses again -. It wasn’t easy to find who could embody her, she does it a lot through her eyes too. Jenna is a person with a lot of strength of character and she reflects the character which is black and white, but she does show some human side, without betraying its essence “. Among the aspects that Burton has in common with Wednesday is also the distrust for web and social networks. “I’m afraid of the internet – she says smiling-. Every time I go looking for something I find myself in some black hole like video with disturbing cats… It is a tool born for good, but it often seems to me that it is often used for evil ”. The debut as a series director lived it naturally. “It was interesting to work on a different pace, here is slower cooking, it was very enjoyable. I gave the general line and the other directors took it forward, “Burton says, recalling that, however,”my first love are moviesand I think, I hope there is still room for cinema ”.