Jenna Ortega Reveals She Was Sick With COVID While Filming 'Wednesday’ Dance Number

Jenna Ortega and her Netflix show 'Wednesday' have been making headlines since its’ record-breaking debut last month. The supernatural series starring the Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage actress, holds the record for the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language series on Netflix, with a whopping 341.23M hours, soaring to the top of the TV charts. The popular series is once again making headlines but this time for a more controversial reason - as lead actress Jenna Ortega recently admitted to having covid while filming the beloved dance scene.

The Rave’N Dance is considered Ortega’s most memorable moment with her stunning gown and fabulous choreography captivating viewers and driving social media wild. Many users have created their own iteration with Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” on Tik Tok and other platforms. What’s even more impressive is that Ortega actually choreographed the dance herself.

I actually felt really insecure about this," she said in a behind-the-scenes video. "I choreographed that myself and I think it’s very obvious that I’m not a dancer or a choreographer."

“It’s not often that you get the opportunity to play such an iconic character,” says Ortega, grinning. “There were challenges along the way, but we wanted to make this an interesting new version [of Wednesday].

While speaking to NME the actress revealed that she awoke with COVID symptoms on the day of her iconic scene, sparking concerns over “grind culture.” According to her interview she revealed she felt body aches, a sore throat and was given medicine between takes awaiting her positive results. Now the filming of the hit Netflix series “Wednesday” is being branded “Highly Irresponsible” as fans have eagerly expressed their concerns over why she was allowed to be on set after showing covid symptoms.

“I choreographed that myself!” Ortega told NME later. “I’m not a dancer and I’m sure that’s obvious. I’d gotten the song [The Cramps’ 1981 single ‘Goo Goo Muck’] about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could… it’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film.”

“Yeah, I woke up and – it’s weird, I never get sick and when I do it’s not very bad – I had the body aches. I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus. They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”

According to NME; The production company behind Wednesday, MGM confirmed to NME via email that “strict COVID protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed production removed Jenna from set.” People took to twitter to express their concerns over how this was handled.