Producer Who Called Actor Jenna Ortega 'Toxic' Tries To Explain
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Producer Steven DeKnight on Wednesday praised actor Jenna Ortega as “an amazing talent” a week after calling her “beyond entitled and toxic.” He attributed his harsh criticism to an “unfortunate situation.”
DeKnight, who produced the “Daredevil” and “Spartacus” TV series, had not worked with Ortega before offering his opinion. He reacted strongly to the star’s admission that she “became almost unprofessional in a sense, where I just started changing lines” on her hit Netflix show “Wednesday.”
“I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things,” Ortega told Dax Shepard in a podcast last week.
DeKnight tweeted that Ortega’s comments were “beyond entitled and toxic” and asked how she would feel if showrunners talked publicly about how difficult she was.
“Life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business,” DeKnight wrote while still praising Ortega’s work.
After a scolding from people on social media, DeKnight softened his tone.
“I can’t stress this enough: She’s an amazing talent,” he wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “It was just an unfortunate situation to expose creative differences publicly.”
“And also I’ll admit that writers are on edge because of the impending strike, myself included,” added DeKnight, whose writing credits include “Pacific Rim: Uprising” and “Smallville.”
HuffPost couldn’t immediately reach Ortega for comment.
The actor has been makingappearances recently to promote “Scream VI” after “Wednesday” proved to be a success in its first season, with Ortega playing Wednesday of the “Addams Family” in an updated take.
The show has been renewed for a second season.
Steven DeKnight and Jenna Ortega
