Who is Jenna Ortega, the protagonist of the Netflix series ‘Merlina’?

wednesday either merlinby those names the series of Netflix most famous of the moment. It’s her first week in the Top 10 of Netflix Ecuador and is already in second place, behind the Colombian telenovela Until money do us part. The mystery that surrounds the plot of merlin and the peculiar direction of Tim Burton These are some of the factors that have influenced the virality of this production.

However, the leading role is taken by the main actress, Jenna Ortega, a 20-year-old girl who plays the role of Merlina for the second time. “I’ve never done a performance of a character that’s been played before, and especially so perfectly,” he said. ortega in the middle of an interview with the magazine Wired of the United States, referring to the first version of Merlina, a fictional character played by the actress Christina Ricci, in the film the addams familyfrom 1991.

“It is rare to participate in something that already has public expectations, and still try to make it different but without taking it too far from the character,” confesses the young woman who grew up in the Coachella Valley, in the state of California. Although she and ricciwho also had a role in the new series of NetflixThey were together in the set of recording, ortega clarified in an interview with The country that there were no tips involved. “We haven’t talked about the character. I think she didn’t want to get into my head and I didn’t want to act like the fan that I am.”

‘Merlina’ dethrones ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix as the most watched series in its first week, but still falls short of ‘The Squid Game’

A curious fact about the performance of ortega is that during the whole series he tries not to blink. “It was something that Tim and I established from the beginning, my character does not blink. He also liked it when I lowered my jaw and looked between my eyebrows, relaxing the muscles of my face; more or less conveying a look at the director’s style stanley kubrick”.

Another novelty that stands out in the series is Merlina’s dance scene, whose choreography has gone viral on TikTok, with more than 600,000 replicas around the world. But what many don’t know is that ortega she was in charge of putting together the choreography herself, days before the shooting began. According to her, the inspiration for her steps came from watching several videos of young goths dancing in nightclubs in the 1980s.

Since she was little, the world of acting caught her attention, specifically after seeing the film at home, The fire of revenge, at six years old. At first, the idea of ​​being an actress did not appeal to her parents who are still very concerned about her exposure to the public. But the actress indicates that she was always persistent, “I worked very hard and I never changed my mind,” she told The country. However, they now have faith in her career and support her, she says.

Although the desire was always clear, ortega It wasn’t always easy for him to get into the film industry. “The truth is that my family had no connection to the Hollywood industry. The chances of getting there are so slim, there are so many people trying,” he said, but after the exposure he has achieved with his latest project, it is likely that he will appear in more international productions. ortega It has already been in the catalog of Netflix. Previous times it has been seen on the digital platform, in the film iron Man 3 and the series Jane the Virginone of his first jobs.

Both films, the one from 1991 and the one from 2022, have been under the direction of Burton, who has a unique bond with the character. “When I read the script, it appealed to me personally and reminded me of how I felt at school, how you feel about your parents, how you feel as a person,” he said. Burton in an interview in Empire. With this series, the American film director made his television debut. (AND)