by Gill Pringle in LA
Appearing in just two episodes of Wednesday – Tim Burton’s 2022 hit re-invention of 1960s TV show, The Addams Family – Catherine Zeta-Jones’ portrayal of Morticia Addams became such a fan favourite, audiences begged for more.
“My lipstick went viral!” says the actress, recalling the moment three years ago when she discovered how her Morticia had resulted in a whole new generation of fans.
The new show’s creators Al Gough and Miles Millar immediately set about writing a second series showcasing Zeta-Jones in every episode.
Of course, the talented Jenna Ortega remains front and centre as the eponymous star with her brilliant personification of Wednesday Addams – yet the show has surely revived the fortunes of the Darling Buds of May beauty who plays her mother.
But it’s not just that signature red lipstick that thrust her into the zeitgeist – it’s her black velvet figure-hugging Morticia costume too, resulting in a massive revival of Addams Family costumes.
“Natalie Portman sent me a picture of her as me! And the fact that Natalie Portman is texting me, I went, ‘Now that’s cool’. To be part of that world, it’s fun.”
If Zeta-Jones’ 25 year marriage to Michael Douglas has anointed her as Hollywood royalty, then it’s not her husband to whom she refers in describing her marriage in Wednesday as “the love affair of the century”.
That accolade goes to Luis Guzman, who plays her devoted husband, Gomez Addams, addressing him as “darling” and “my boy”.
Indeed, in the second season of Wednesday, we see Morticia and Gomez embark on a camping trip – something she admits she would never undertake with her real-life husband.
“My kids and husband were always like, ‘Come on, we’ll get a trailer! We’ll go camping’. And I’m like, forget it!
“But, as Morticia Addams, I will go camping every day of the week,” laughs the Welsh actress referring to the sumptuous campground that we see when Morticia and Gomez accompany their reluctant daughter on a school camping trip with Nevermore Academy.
Featuring an expanding new cast – including Steve Buscemi, Billie Piper and Thandiwe Newton – one of the more thrilling Season 2 additions is AbFab star Joanna Lumley in the role of Wednesday’s grandmother, Hester Frump.
“She’s ghastly. The only person she really likes in the whole show is Wednesday. She’s fond of Wednesday because she can see in her the kind of spirit and streak of bad – danger, daring, everything that she doesn’t see in Morticia and the other daughter, Ophelia,” Lumley tells us, warming the topic of her onscreen monstrousness.
“She’s grand, she’s vain, she’s greedy – and she sees in Wednesday a shining light. This, of course, falls very naturally to me, which is why Tim said: ‘You are Hester Frump,’” says the self-deprecating actress.
“And Hester has got the most extraordinary hairstyle, and I think that really captured her for me at once, as soon as I saw it going on – a white wig followed by a black wig, and then the white wig somehow going up over the black wig, she turned into something from hell.
“And it was just wonderful, because at the bottom of that – I wanted to wear the same kind of shoes that Wednesday wears. So, she’s wearing kind of Doc Martens clumpy boots under her quite svelte clothing. I just adored that, that weird hairstyle at the top and the clumpy boots at the bottom, because we’re inhabiting creations; these aren’t real people. These are figments of imagination.
“They started long ago in American history, and we’ve got to bring a kind of faithfulness to them that these are real people. These are rounded people. And you’ve got to, therefore, spin your character up out of something – like making candy floss, as we call it in England, and so making my candy floss character, I grabbed at the hair, I grabbed at the feet, I grabbed at the script. I grabbed at Tim!” she says.
For Jenna Ortega, 22, Wednesday still has a few surprises despite having fully immersed herself in the character during the first season.
“I think it’s all about her strength and her confidence. I think most often times when people pick apart a character, it’s about what makes them insecure and shy and what’s their painful kind of quality that they would hate to admit – and Wednesday doesn’t really have any of that, she’s just so clearly and obviously herself.
“So, it’s nice to step into those shoes. For me, it’s very obvious when something isn’t Wednesday or it doesn’t suit her, or I’m falling out of character. It’s almost like she comes with a list of rules, which is helpful. It’s a great guideline and basis. Anytime I feel lost or confused in a scene, I just have to go back to those qualities . . .or I just leave the room.
“We started doing that – where, if I didn’t get a reaction or something, was just too ugly and hideous for Wednesday, I would just walk out of the shot. So, we do that as well,” she says.
If Wednesday is filled with Gothic fantasy and dark comedy, then Zeta-Jones finds this iteration of the Addams Family to be very modern.
“Morticia and Gomez and all the Addams Family are such a modern family, when you think of it?” she suggests.
“We’re a family that embraces idiosyncrasies and outcasts traits – and we encourage them. We don’t try to box them away. It was wonderful in Season Two to explore that; for us to be within Wednesday’s world, even though she didn’t want us to be there, but we planted ourselves within the school grounds, really.
“And that mother/daughter dynamic is something that is unique to Wednesday and Morticia in that there’s such a deep sense of love, but it’s just two personalities that just, well . . .” she says, referring to the time-honoured clash between mothers and daughters.
“But then the dynamic of my mother too, that gives me another element of parenting, how she wants to be a different mother to Wednesday, than Hester was to me,” she says referring to her juicy new dynamic with Lumley’s Grandmama Frump.
“We are thrilled that Wednesday has become such a phenomenon. I’m thrilled to be part of it. And it’s such a wonderful, safe, fabulous place to be, and just to turn up every day for that, it’s a gift,” she says of the second series which was filmed in Ireland instead of its original Romania location.
“And then the success [of the show] and the inclusion of people who’ve always felt that they are a bit of the outcast, or didn’t really feel that they were seen or could be seen, or had to hide certain traits or nuances… It’s like, ‘Come on, bring it on! Everyone’s welcome here.’ And to be part of that is very special.”
Wednesday Season 1 and 2 are streaming now.
