She learned to dance, dance, dance with her hands in two days.
Jenna Ortega revealed Friday while appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” that her now-viral dance from the Netflix series “Wednesday” took her two days to choreograph.
“[Director Tim Burton] came to my trailer about two days before we shot it and said, ‘Hey Jenna, so I know you said you wanted to choreograph this yourself,’” said Ortega, 20, said. “He was like, ‘I know you 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.’”
The dance appears in the Addams family spin-off with the “Scream” star dancing — while deadpanning — to the Cramps’ 1981 hit “Goo Goo Muck.”
According to Ortega, there was only one misstep.
“I had not gone over it at all,” Ortega confessed. “I was doing cello that week, fencing that week. I just didn’t have time … Oh my God, I was kicking myself. I felt like such a fool.”
Ortega then revealed that she watched “just anything I could get my hands on” to get inspiration for the dance.
“I’m not a dancer. I don’t do any of that. I have no experience in that field,” said Ortega. “I didn’t sleep for two days. I watched videos of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Denis Lavant in ‘Beau Travail.’ I found archival footage of goth kids dancing in clubs in the ’80s. Lene Lovich. Nina Hagen. And then, on the day, I thought, ‘All right, let’s see what happens.’”
Ortega also revealed that she wanted to incorporate certain things in her dance, including a small tribute to Lisa Loring — the first Wednesday Addams — within the dance.
The dance has since exploded on TikTok as the latest trend with creators using the choreography instead of the original audio, users have been using Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary.”
Gaga herself even joined in the trend and filmed herself dancing to her own song — the video has since received 10.8 million views.
Ortega also revealed that she also tested positive for COVID-19 while filming the now iconic scene.
“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,’” Ortega joked. “I figured, you know, they’re excited. They’re getting hyped up. And then they were right.”
“Wednesday” is currently streaming on Netflix.