-Jenna Ortega.
Welcome to the show.
-Thank you very much, Jimmy Fallon.
-Thanks for being here. I appreciate this.
It's good to have -- Before we go into "Wednesday,"
which I can't wait to rave about,
right now, you're in a trailer for the new "Scream" movie.
-Yes, I am. -And it broke records --
it started -- it went viral, I think.
It came out and it did 3 million views in the first day.
This is your second "Scream" movie.
Do you like doing these movies?
-I love horror films. I don't know what it is about,
you know, having blood thrown on your face
and running around screaming bloody murder,
but it really is so therapeutic, so much fun.
Everyone who works on horror sets loves horror.
You know, people do special effects
because they grew up loving gore.
The best part about the "Scream" films is,
it really is such a great community.
That cast and crew, they're my family.
And we can never take anything seriously.
So, Ghostface could literally be in the middle
of their monologue, and we're having
to restart takes because we're laughing so hard.
-Oh, really? -Yeah. It's a mess.
-On one of the scariest movies ever, you're laughing?
-Yeah, we could be -- In the fifth one, I was, like,
army crawling in the hospital, and I just would --
I wouldn't lift my face 'cause I was laughing in my hands.
[ Laughter ]
-Do you feel like you're being kind of typecast
because you're in that, and you're in "Wednesday."
They're kind of dark. -It's something about my face.
-No. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. I don't know what it is.
People love seeing me scared.
-No. -Yeah, I don't know.
-You are -- Not only are you stunning,
but you can't take your eyes off of you when I see you.
I watch "Wednesday," and I told you this backstage.
I go, "Oh, my gosh. You're crushing this."
You're phenomenal.
It is the second-most watched series in Netflix history.
[ Cheers and applause ]
One of only three shows to be streamed over a billion times.
Over a billion.
Can you even understand that? -No.
I try not to, actually. -Yeah.
-It's too weird. -But, I mean, you nail
every joke, every delivery. You're so funny.
This is before you even did the dance scene.
I mean, the dan-- Can we talk about the dance?
The Wednesday dance? -Yeah, if you want to.
-Yeah, I mean, going into it, what happened?
Did Tim Burton go, "Okay, I got an idea.
You do this, you do that."
-Well, I read episode 104 pretty early on.
And we didn't know what song we were gonna be using,
we didn't know what the situation was.
Initially, they wanted a flash mob,
but I thought, no, there's no way Wednesday
would be cool with dancing and encouraging a bunch of people.
So Tim and I -- the director, Tim Burton, and I
talked about it a little bit, and he said,
"Yeah, let's not do a circle. Let's have it be her own thing."
And I remember, about a week before we started --
a week before we shot the dance, he chose the song,
"Goo Goo Muck," by The Cramps.
And The Cramps is one of my favorite bands ever.
So I was super excited, super pumped.
It was on my episode 4 playlist.
And he came to my trailer about two days before we shot it
and said, "Hey, Jenna, so I know you said that you wanted to
choreograph this yourself --"
Because I refused to see a choreographer.
He was like, "I know you've got it.
You've been working on it.
I'm not even worried about it. I trust you."
And I said, "Oh, yeah, you know, it's all so good."
And I had not gone over it at all.
[ Laughter ]
-You had no plan? -No.
I mean, I was doing cello that week, fencing that week.
I just didn't have time. -You do a lot in the show.
-There's a lot going on. -Yes.
You work hard on this show, and, like, on top of that,
you're, like, gonna choreograph your own dance?
-Yeah. Oh, my God. I was kicking myself.
I felt like such a fool. I was like --
I'm not a dancer. I don't do any of that.
I have no experience in that field.
And then, yeah, I didn't sleep for two days.
I watched videos of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
-Really? -Denis Lavant in "Beau Travail."
I found archival footage of goth kids
dancing in clubs in the '80s. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Lene Lovich, Nina Hagen,
just anything that I could get my hands on.
And then, on the day, I thought, "Well, all right."
-"I'm just gonna do it." -"Let's just see what happens."
-Did you just go super long?
Did you do it like a 20-minute dance?
Or is this the step by step,
this was exactly what you planned?
-No, I knew there were certain things that I wanted to do.
I paid homage to Lisa Loring, the first Wednesday Addams.
I did a little bit of her shuffle that she does.
And, of course, they cut out of camera
when I did do it, but it's there, I know it is.
[ Laughs ] -'Cause you did it, yeah.
-Yeah. -Yeah, of course.
That's wild.
Did you understand that it would go this viral?
It's everything on TikTok right now.
Right now, if you go on TikTok, it's you dancing.
It is. -No, I didn't, I didn't.
And Netflix, they were telling me,
"Oh, you know, Jenna, this is gonna be a thing on TikTok."
And I thought, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, whatever."
Because I figured, you know, "They're excited.
They're getting hyped up," and then they were right.
-Yeah, sometimes people are right.
-Yeah, they know what they're doing over there or something.
-You're mesmerizing. You're dazzling to look at.
I just go, "Oh, my God." And you're doing that,
and you're just doing the Wednesday stare,
and you're kind of doing that.
But then that, and it's kind of --
You make it cool.
And it's one of the kind of geekiest songs, "Goo Goo Muck."
♪ Wah wah wah ♪
You know, The Cramps, and I go, "How did you do this?"
And it's just -- I don't know.
I think we all agree it's just well done.
You just crushed it. -Thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Jenna Ortega. I want to show a clip.
Here's Jenna Ortega in "Wednesday."
Take a look at this.
-Winner draws first blood.
[ Suspenseful music ]
-[ Scoffs ]
-It's your decision, Bianca.
♪♪
-Let's see if you bleed in black and white.
♪♪
[ Blade slices ]
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Jenna Ortega!
"Wednesday" is streaming right now on Netflix.
We'll be right back with stand-up
from Mike Feeney, everybody. Come on back.