Gina Ortega says she didn’t sleep in two days while she choreographed the “Wednesday” dance scene herself

• “Wednesday” star Gina Ortega said she spent two days without sleep planning her viral dance scene.
• The actress said she choreographed the dance herself and researched it extensively.
• Inspiration for the dance included archived footage of gothic teens dancing in clubs in the 1980s.

Gina Ortega’s iconic dance to “Wednesday” was entirely her own choreography, and it took her 48 hours without sleep to put it together, she said during a recent interview on the late-night talk show.

Since debuting on Netflix in November, “Wednesday” has resonated with young audiences. It has overtaken “Stranger Things” as the English-language series with the most watched time, with more than 400 million hours, according to The Independent.

Much of that popularity is due to Ortega’s casting as Wednesday’s titular character as well as a now-viral dance she performs on the show’s fourth episode, Insider previously reported.

But behind the scenes, a lot of thought went into the unique performance, according to Ortega. During an appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon, Ortega said she refused to work with a choreographer on the dance and spent days planning it herself before filming it.

“I’m not a dancer,” said Ortega. “I didn’t sleep for two days, I watched videos of Siouxie and the Banshee, Dennis Levant in Beau Travel.”

Another inspiration for the dance, which was set for The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck,” Ortega said, was archive footage of goth kids dancing in clubs in the 1980s.

The young actress said she only turned her attention to dancing after director Tim Burton reminded her that she was coming up on the filming schedule.

“He came into my trailer two days before we shot it and said ‘Hey Gina, so I know you said you wanted to choreograph this yourself,'” she said. He said, ‘I know you get it, you’ve been working on it, I’m not even worried about it. I trust you. “

Ortega said she told Burton everything was good, but said she didn’t prepare for it at all due to a busy filming schedule. “I was playing the cello that week, and I had a duel that week,” she said. “I was kicking myself, I felt like an idiot.”

Earlier in December, the actress revealed that she was sick with the COVID virus when filming the scene. The star told NME that she contracted the virus during production.

“It was my first day with COVID so filming was awful. Yeah, I woke up and — it’s weird, I’ve never been sick and when I do it’s not so bad — I had body aches,” Ortega said. “I felt like I had been hit by a car and a little goblin had been released down my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus. They would give me medicine between intervals.”

Ortega also indicated that she did not get a positive test result at the time, which is why she was still allowed on the set.