‘Wednesday’ Cast Break Down The Show’s Biggest Moments

Hello GQ, we're the cast of Wednesday. And today we're going to be breaking down some of the biggest moments of the show. The poke-up was about two weeks of the shoot. It was freezing outside. Months of rehearsals too, though. 5am, call time to get to a lake. Wait, hold on, is that the first time we ever spent time with each other? The poke-up? No, in the boat when we were doing the boat lessons. It totally was. I think you flipped your boat. Yeah, Georgie flipped his boat. On the first day? Yeah. I think it was Jenna and I in this little canoe. And then Georgie was in a canoe with this stunt guy. And I think they flipped the boat. It actually was great bonding. You know, we all were on that same boat. You were on the same boat, were you? Because I think we started singing like, Hollaback Girl to be in sync with each other. Oh, I wasn't on the Hollaback Girl boat either. No, the worst thing about filming that was that we had to keep up with the camera boat. But you couldn't because the wake from the camera boat would just push you back. Oh yeah, it was really hard shooting coverage because we were going in parallel directions. But there was a lot of footage that you guys ended up doing that I didn't do. Like pick-up days, they filmed this big, huge pool or tank. But the poke-up was wonderful. We likened it to summer camp. Everybody was in costume. The summer was ending and the fall was beginning. And we would just sit around and play hand games or card games. We would take naps on the floor. I have a picture of you passed out on the floor over time. Georgi, what was it like? Did you fall that day off the boat? No, I fell in the first, as soon as I got on the boat. But somebody's boat flipped that day. Yeah, boats do flip. Yeah, I was pretty hopeless. It was really incredible shooting in Romania. It was a bit strange because it was the pandemic. It's on a weird, at least for me, I felt like we couldn't really talk to people back home because the time difference was so severe. I think we were all very young in a country so far away. But tonally and visually it was so aligned with our show. The atmosphere and the stages, the castles that we would shoot at. A lot of the buildings were super weird and off-putting. A lot of dilapidated rooms. It was really incredible and I think really set the tone for what we were trying to accomplish. We went to Ireland for the second season of the show, which is beautiful, amazing, such incredible crews. But sometimes it looked a bit too green. And it was better the Romanian winter, the harsh, dark, you know. Yeah, conditions. Yeah, exactly. It really helped the show, I think. I think it was a special place too because it was a first-time thing for a lot of us. And so it was like a training ground and getting, you know, first time on set, like a set like that, it's endeared. I wasn't there so much, so I spent a lot of touring. I went to all the, I went to Dracula's place, Transylvania. Oh yeah, I saw the Bed of Nails. Yeah, I went, I did a lot of touring around. Great thing about when you're, for these guys, they were working every day of every, you know, week. But we just came in and out, didn't we, Sveta? Yeah, we did. We were like the pros. Point to Wednesday. I was very intent on, you know, approaching it with purpose. I mean, it being my introduction, essentially, to the world was very nerve-wracking. But thankfully, the stunt team was just so important in helping all of us feel prepared. And even though Jenna and I didn't really get to rehearse it, we knocked it out of the park. And I think we did the first take, and it was like you could hear a pin drop after we called cut, and then everyone broke into applause. So that was a really special moment. Yeah, it was an exciting day. We had like maybe two or three times where we got to actually try it with each other, but it was in blocks, like it wasn't the full thing. So the stunt team made this huge gym, and then we would practice within these foam walls. But you're right, we did get to do like once or twice with each other. At the location, yeah. Like we had a separate room where it was like very tight, so we couldn't even do the full thing together the morning of. But it's very choreographed, and so really my part was just making sure I had it down to be ready for Tim, because it's very exact, you know, like hitting your marks and making sure it can all be captured. But again, like all credit to the stunt team for helping us, you know, feel prepared. And I went from not knowing fencing at all to doing that scene, so it was pretty cool. Yeah, but also in terms of like setup and cameras and things like that, Tim is very spontaneous, and it's heavily dictated by blocking and things like that, so he has to see these things in the room, and then he kind of goes from there. So we didn't really have a say, he just kind of watches these things and then decided, you know, what best fits, not only for the characters, but then also visually. So it's nice because it gives us a bit more freedom as well, because we get to kind of decide which direction or, you know, we want to stand going. Still as sharp as ever, my pigtailed protégé. Uncle Fester. They're sort of kindred spirits, so they're family members as well as friends, and Fester's kind of like an outsider and a loner, so he takes pleasure in getting to help her out and go on adventures, and so he does that in the first season and the second season as well. It was like he gets to go off and do stuff, and he takes glee in it. Yeah, you're really weird in the show. Yeah, properly weird. Somehow weirder than the Addams family. Yeah, you do have a different weird dimension. Like, seriously weird. I think your humor is so great. I just think he's a freak. I think he knows he's a freak. And they sort of put prosthetic covers over my eyebrows, paint me a sort of deathly gray, dark circles around my eyes, and then this coat that, like, changes my posture. It's, like, right up to the bottom of my chin with this huge collar, and it's great. It becomes almost like a cape or a cocoon. He's like a walking cocoon, and he's got a little suitcase. He's always on the go. So it's pretty great. It's a nice way to exist. Did they cut your hair for season 2 as well? Same. It's also just easier that way instead of putting on a bald cap or whatever. Still bringing a knife to a sword fight? You taught me everything I know. But I didn't teach you everything I know. Well, at the start, it's back-to-school day, basically, after a little hiatus, a little vacation. So Wednesday goes back to school, and Morticia and Gomez take both their children back to Nevermore and drop them off in a very different situation from when she left. Wednesday's struggling with her psychic ability. Morticia's trying to help her. Wednesday doesn't want any help because she's very independent. She feels like her mom is kind of smothering her. She's joining the school boards, being part of the Scala. So they're at an odds again. Even though they have a better understanding of one another after the end of season 1, we eventually challenge each other to a sword fight to solve our differences. I think it's an extension of the dueling that we have as characters, verbally and emotionally. And so when Wednesday challenges her mother to an actual physical duel, it's something kind of magical and kind of, you know, dangerous and, you know, it's very conflicting about, as a mother, would you ever hurt her daughter? But then Wednesday's Wednesday, and the challenge of these two women. I had such great fun shooting that with you. Yeah, so did I. It's one of my favorite things to come out of the show. It shows that they still love each other, weirdly enough, because it's very much in the heart of what the Addams family is, and they both like sword fighting. So they know they're at odds, but they're kind of still, like, play wrestling, almost, in a sense. Yeah, exactly. And the dialogue has nuances, very fun. It's a wonderful sequence. Yeah, you can tell they're both getting into it. You know, they're deriving pleasure from the experience, which is nice. And all along, I thought they were bonding. It's a huge choreography, you know, really. Once we mastered the physicality of the sword fighting, then the choreography, and then interjecting the dialogue and keeping our characters. There is Wednesday and me as Morticia. And then they added the blindfold, which, through technical advances, we were able to get some sense of where we were positioned whilst we were doing it. That was terrible. Yeah, it was a pretty daunting experience. They kept sliding off. Yeah. The continuity was messed up, but we made it through. We made it through, and it was fun. It's a very real mother-daughter relationship, you know. I didn't really have that with my own daughter, but I've seen it, and I think a lot of women will, you know, be able to relate to it. As people of all generations can relate to so much of our cast and characters in Wednesday, it's a very strong sense of love, but with that comes the reality that they're two very different women who happen to be blood-related, but the contention is still there. Gomez, during their sword fight, is taking a shower and singing one of the ultimate, most beautiful love songs of all time, Besame Mucho, which I worked on for, like, over two months. I really got into it. I was thinking I was going to launch another career. And your body looks wonderful, darling. Oh, honey, please, don't go there. It was gorgeous, gorgeously, very subtly, subtly shot for obvious reasons. Besame Mucho We're singing the song, having a great time, but somebody else had other plans, and that was Pugley's pet. The thing is, like, her son, her brother, her friend, her confidant, she's quite difficult on him, but as we all are with people that we love, you know, there's a comfortability and a relaxed nature to their experience, and it's a very big moment for her. As we see, you know, in the first episode of season one, Wednesday crying over the loss of her pet, Scorpion, it's kind of a similar thing, and I say, you know, it's really big. I don't cry, I don't show emotion side of her, so that was really interesting as an actor to play and kind of find a way that felt... I kind of wanted it to look almost childlike because it's so innocent, and it's such a huge deviation from everything that we had done in the show thus far. Also, Victor, the actor who plays the hand, it is like working with a real actor, you know? He's in his blue suit, and he's reacting to you in real time, so it's really, really beneficial, but, you know, we did a couple of takes, and he wouldn't do anything. He would just lie there playing dead, and then we did a couple of takes where every once in a while he would, like, catch me off guard and do something, like caress my hand or react in a certain way, and it was very bizarre. I'd never had anything like that before, but he kind of surprised me, and I really, really enjoyed that. It was such a break from everything that we had been doing, and it gave me an opportunity to express myself in a different way, and, you know, television, you do for such... We were in Romania for eight months at a time, so to be able to do something different and something that was challenging for the character, it was just a very refreshing day. I remember being very, um, pleased with the experience. Also, great almost death-for-thing. Walking in and seeing him stabbed to the wall like a vampire with a stake through the chest was... I loved that. I loved the scene also right before prying him off. It was a nice stick to it. Mommy loves you. It was a surprise, but not a surprise that it was a surprise. I was like, of course there are going to be twists like this. So it was great, but also seeing it come to fruition was even better. Also, walking onto that set, it's, like, practical. You know, it's, like, gigantic, and it looked amazing. I loved it. It's obviously very fitting for our show, but then also very exciting slash devastating at the same time because, obviously, Christina Ricci has been such a pleasure and such a gift to our show. You know, she was kind of a surprise hire for all of us, and it was beautiful, and I loved getting the opportunity to work with her, but then she absolutely just kills it. Also, I loved her look, the new haircut. She looks like, you know, Mia Farrow. Rosemary's baby. Like, everything about her. It felt very fitting, and if she was going to go, it was a very... It was a good go. Earned one. I wasn't in that sequence, but I loved watching it because it has such scary elements, such great performances, and the humor as well. You know, I found myself rib laughing, chuckling, as well as getting scared, you know, out of my skin. I love you, and the canteen lady, the lady. Oh, fantastic. Oh, yeah, I love that. It's all in that sequence. We had so much more of that. We just didn't have the time to shoot it, so we had to get ready. It was just wonderful. That's definitely a big transformation for her because when we meet her, she's definitely an outcast among outcasts, doesn't have a pack, is kind of ostracized because she can't really use her powers, or she's kind of there for no reason. When we first get introduced to her, we wanted to make it feel like she had been waiting for a friend for a long time in that dorm room, and her wolfing out kind of symbolizes that she is finally able to join the life that she wanted to and now finds a pack and feels like she fits in, and that's a really big moment for her, especially that when it happens, she's using it for good, and she's using it to help Wednesday. It's a big transformation for her. Nevermore is this camp that we do, and unfortunately we've booked it at the same time as this Boy Scouts camp, and essentially we have to battle it out to see who can take over the camp for the weekend. We played this capture the flag sort of game, except with an egg. Was it an egg? I think it was an egg. I thought it was huge. It looked like a football. Yeah, it was like a big egg sort of thing. It was like this season's version of the Po Cup. Yeah. So just like a big spectacle, campy experience. Aim for the Gorgon's beanie. What Catherine said earlier about how, you know, throughout the show I feel like different characters are going through very real life situations, even in this sort of heightened world, and I think finding yourself in high school is a big thing for a lot of people, and I think that's what Ajax is sort of dealing with this season, and I hope he gets to the point where he can feel more confident in using his powers other than on himself, which is nice. After having the carrot dangled in front of our noses for season one, we were like, anything else we can do? Like another crystal ball moment? So when Miles and Al and Tim called me, asking for me though, Louis as well, but we're going to be incorporated into the school, it was just such a treat to read the scripts because it was so beautifully intertwined. It wasn't like, we need more family, let's do this. It just dovetailed beautifully into these guys' story and, you know, the central story being Wednesday. And we were just thrilled. Oh my goodness. We were so happy. I mean, we got to tangle together and go camping together and enjoy the incredible Adams tent. Remember that? Oh, yes. Yes. It was a great time. I think our characters were really efficient in the storytelling this year. For season two, Lady Gaga is going to be a part of it. Gaga is such a powerhouse and such a beautiful person. We're very excited. The crew was very excited. They showed up wearing their nice dress shirts that day. She's a cool lady and I'm excited for everyone to see her in this because she's great. I've never been on a show where there's been so much chat about who's doing what and if there's this going on and we're like, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Thank you for talking through some of the biggest moments of Wednesday.