‘I felt like such a fool’: Jenna Ortega couldn’t sleep for two days before viral Wednesday dance scene

Wednesday star Jenna Ortega has revealed that she couldn’t sleep for two days while preparing for the show’s viral dance scene.

In Tim Burton’s hit Netflix series, Ortega’s Wednesday Addams asks her love interest, Xavier (Percy Hynes White), to their school’s Rave’N Dance.

As The Cramps’s 1981 single “Goo Goo Muck” plays during the night’s event, Wednesday treats Xavier to an eccentric dance routine.

The routine, which Ortega choreographed herself, quickly went viral and has since become a TikTok trend.

Speaking to late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon, Ortega said she was “kicking” herself over her decision to dream up the dance scene herself.

“I felt like such a fool,” she said. “I’m not a dancer. I don’t do any of that. I have no experience in that field. And then I didn’t sleep for two days.”

Ortega said she was inspired by videos of Siouxsie and the Banshees and archival footage of “goth kids dancing in clubs in the Eighties”.

“I paid homage to Lisa Loring, the first Wednesday Addams,” she said. “I did a little bit of her shuffle that she does. And of course, they cut out of camera when I did do it. But it’s there – I know it is.”

Wednesday is a story about the Addams Family characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams, and follows Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, prevent a killing spree and solve a 25-year-old mystery concerning her parents.

Following Wednesday’s release in late November, the series quickly set a surprising Rotten Tomatoes milestone.

The Independent’s Jacob Stolworthy, meanwhile, has argued that the show’s success could spell trouble for TV in the future.