Wednesday Addams, otherwise known as the Mistress of the Macabre, isn’t known for showing her emotions. She has a deadpan sense of humor and a reputation for being at the forefront of the strange and unusual that some find unsettling. All of that being said, Wednesday Addams is not a character known for having a cheery demeanor. So, on the rare occasion that Jenna Ortega's character does crack a smile in her series that you can watch with a Netflix subscription, it’s something to take note of because it probably has a deeper meaning.
She smiles so rarely that, funnily enough, even Jenna Ortega couldn’t remember exactly how many times it happened across the first season. During a conversation to promote her latest project on the 2026 movie schedule, Klara and the Sun, her co-star Amy Adams asked her to recount just how many times Wednesday smiled in eight episodes, and you can watch her incorrect guess below:
Well, the answer is seven. And seven smiles in eight episodes is actually a higher count than I would have guessed as a fan of the Netflix show. So I’m not surprised at the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star’s undercount. However, it's also still notably not that high, which makes moments in Wednesday that involve Ortega smiling all the more memorable.
Being known for her icy-cold exterior means that a smirk is far more likely than a smile when it comes to Wednesday. A genuine smile is something that is even rarer. As long as everyone knows that she’s not going to be empathetic, whatever their plight happens to be, she can maintain her detachment and live up to her loner nature. When you leave Jenna Ortega in charge of conveying those facial gestures and emotional reactions, you can get them in the smallest of degrees that really tell you so much about what Wednesday is thinking or feeling in any given moment. And if she gives a genuine, toothy smile, you’ll remember it.
From Wednesday’s viral dance to her killer sarcasm, the Scream star seems destined to play the character with a perpetual dark cloud following her around. About a decade ago, Ortega unintentionally manifested her future in a funny clip during her time on the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle. Seriously, she was born to play this character who rarely smiles. So, once all is said and done with the Wednesday series, I know I’ll be keeping an eye out for a highlight reel of all the times the character smiled throughout the series run.
With Wednesday already locked in for a third season, and details scarce for what will happen following Season 2’s finale, we’ll have to wait to see what might inspire the eldest Addams child to smile yet again.
