Steven DeKnight backtracks on ‘toxic and entitled’ Jenna Ortega tirade

Filmmaker Steven DeKnight has issued a new statement after launching a stunning public tirade against “entitled, toxic” Netflix star Jenna Ortega.

Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. Picture: Netflix

Hollywood veteran Steven DeKnight is soft-pedaling shocking comments he made about Netflix actress Jenna Ortega being “toxic” and “entitled”.

DeKnight tweeted a semi-apology to the Wednesday star for his prior statements – on Wednesday, suitably enough – about the 20-year-old breakout star, reports the New York Post.

“I can’t stress this enough: She’s an amazing talent,” said DeKnight, 58, who’s produced and scripted shows such as Daredevil and Buffy the Vampire Slayer over his multi-decade career.

“It was just an unfortunate situation to expose creative differences publicly,” he continued, “and also I’ll admit that writers are on edge because of the impending strike, myself included. A perfect storm.”

Ortega as Wednesday Addams. Picture: Netflix

He added: “She’s fantastic, which I keep saying over and over. It was an unfortunate gaffe to say that publicly. We’ve all had them. Learning experience for everyone. Me included.”

The comments come after Scream VI star Ortega revealed on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast that she changed lines in blockbuster hit Netflix series and behaved “unprofessionally” at times.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday,” Ortega said earlier this week, the latest in a string of recent jabs at her own show.

DeKnight initially fired back by tweeting, “She’s young, so maybe she doesn’t know any better (but she should). She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material.”

Ortega complained about some of the storylines. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

But DeKnight took issue with her remarks. Picture: Justin Lloyd

The producer and filmmaker also said that sometimes stars “don’t have the full pictures [in TV] of where the story is going and why some lines are needed for the whole to make sense”.

The Post has contacted DeKnight and Ortega for comment.

Hectic schedule on hit show

Meanwhile, Wednesday is currently the second most-watched English language-based show on Netflix logging 1.02 billion hours viewed since it debuted on November 16.

On Shepard’s podcast last week, the Wednesday star admitted that she put her “foot down,” verging on being “unprofessional” for the sake of her Addams’ family character, of whom she was “very protective”.

“Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all,” she said.

Ortega also previously revealed that filming the show caused her to cry “hysterically” due to a hectic schedule.

“It was show up to set two hours early, do that 12 to 14-hour day, then go home and then get on a Zoom and have whatever lesson that I had,” Ortega said.

“Or show up to my apartment, [and] my cello teacher was already waiting for me. It was just constantly going, and if you could on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting the sixth day that week, it was, ‘All right, well then, we’ll get your lessons in on that day.’”

Ortega is set to star in the series’ second season, as well as serve as one of the executive producers.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission

Originally published as Steven DeKnight backtracks on ‘toxic and entitled’ Jenna Ortega tirade