'Wednesday' star Jenna Ortega had Covid-19 while filming popular dance scene

The dance scene in the series 'Wednesday' has taken social media by storm. Photo: Handout

Actress Jenna Ortega, the breakout star of hit Netflix comedy-horror series Wednesday, has revealed that she had Covid-19 when she filmed a dance scene which has since gone viral.

“I’m not a dancer and I’m sure that’s obvious,” said the 20-year-old to entertainment portal NME.

“I’d gotten the song about a week before and I just pulled from whatever I could... it’s crazy because it was my first day with Covid-19, so it was awful to film.”

She clarified that she did not know she had Covid-19 at the time.

“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 oesophagus,” she said, adding that she was given medicine between takes while waiting for the Covid-19 test result to come back.

According to MGM, the production company behind Wednesday, “strict Covid-19 protocols were followed and once the positive test was confirmed, production removed Jenna from set”.

“I asked to redo it, but we didn’t have time,” she said of her purposefully jerky dance moves inspired by 1970s rocker Siouxsie Sioux. “I think I probably could have done it a bit better.”

The dance, set to Goo Goo Muck (1981) by The Cramps, has taken social media by storm, with numerous black-clad goth wannabes taking on the dance challenge.

On TikTok, the hashtag #wednesdaydance has 494.7 million views and the scene even got a shout-out from American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga.

On Twitter, however, the fact that Ortega continued filming while possibly infected sparked a backlash.

One netizen tweeted: “It was a dangerous, unethical and extremely selfish thing to do, both on her part, and on the part of the directors and producers. There’s absolutely no positive way to spin an actress knowingly exposing hundreds of cast members and crew to Covid-19.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network