“Wendy’s is an absolutely brilliant television debut by the acclaimed director Tim Burton. It’s symbolic that Barton has long wanted to immerse himself in the Addams Family universe, and in 1991 he was even among the directors who were supposed to be involved in the Addams Family movie. But Barton was busy filming Batman Forever, so Barry Sonnenfeld took the director’s chair instead. But some 30 years passed, and Barton waited.
His Vansday is a subtle, ironic coming-of-age drama with an original plot and a magnificent cast (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gwendoline Christie, Jenna Ortega). The central figure of the series is teenager Wendy, the daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams. She is going through a typical teenage crisis – she hates her parents and wants to run away from every school she is enrolled in, but this is complicated by the fact that she is an unusual teenager and must master her mystical abilities in addition to all the teenage problems. The girl finds herself in the school of Nevermore, where her mother once studied, and where she not only establishes relationships with friends and falls in love, but also has to deal with mysterious murders.
The jewel of the series is the 20-year-old American actress Jenna Ortega, who embodied the role of a thin, reflective girl named Wenzday with big eyes, two thin braids and perfect taste. Jenna was born in 2002 in California, her parents are of Mexican descent. At the age of 10, she was already acting in TV shows, and at 15 she won the prestigious Imagen Award for her role in the Disney series Harley’s Life, and the same year she starred in Iron Man.
In recent years, she has gained fame as a mystical movie star. Her filmography includes the mystical series “You”, which aired on Netflix, the horror movie “Astral: Chapter 2”, “Scream”, the movie “Nanny. Queen of Killers”. This year, the American fashion press called Ortega the “scream queen of Generation Z”. Having played in the films X and Scream, the actress proved to be one of the brightest new names in the horror genre. In total, the 20-year-old star has about 20 projects in her filmography, which makes her one of the most productive young actresses.
It was Jenna Ortega who was Tim Burton’s favorite during the casting of the series. It is said that it took just a few lines for her to be approved for the role – the 20-year-old actress was so organic in the image of the sarcastic Wenzday.
In the series, Jenna Ortega’s character is a real fashionista. In the original 1990s film, we were used to seeing Wesday in a black schoolgirl dress, and it was hard to imagine her as anything else, but Barton exceeded our expectations. Throughout the eight episodes of the series, Venzday offers us a truly sophisticated look at its gothic protagonist. From the very first scene, her classic black schoolgirl dress is modernized with pointy collars. And her prom dress? It’s by Alaia! The costumes for the show were designed by the legendary Colleen Atwood, who has created more than 10 films with Barton, including Alice in Wonderland, for which she won an Academy Award.
Venzday’s style has a lot in common with the actress’s own image. She loves white collars, lace, and black. Thus, at the presentations of the series, Ortega appears in black gothic dresses by Versace, Valentino and Saint Laurent. She also admits that her nails are now always painted black – just like Wenzday’s, of course.
Since 2016, the girl has been collaborating with stylist Enrique Melendez, whose concept is to pay tribute to each of Ortega’s new projects in her outfits. Well, it works brilliantly – just look at her look at the world premiere of Venzday in Los Angeles: a black Versace dress with transparent lace inserts, a thigh-high slit, and a matching veil.
