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Jenna Ortega reluctantly does viral 'Wednesday' dance ahead of 'Saturday Night Live' hosting debut

One last ride, for old times' sake.

By Josh Weiss
Jenna Ortega on Saturday Night Live

Even Jenna Ortega is a little burnt out from the viral Wednesday dance that took the internet by storm following the premiere of Netflix's Addams Family-inspired television series. The actress tries in vain to explain this simple fact to three cast members of Saturday Night Live in a new promo spotlighting her hosting debut this weekend. But democracy wins out in the end, and Ortega agrees to get jiggy with it one last time, especially since the committed SNL players went to the trouble of putting together such detailed costumes.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon back in December, Ortega revealed that director Tim Burton allowed her to come up with the now famous dance moves herself.

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"I was kicking myself, I felt like such a fool," she confessed. "I was like, 'I'm not a dancer. I don't do that, I have no experience in that field.' And then 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 — just anything that I could get my hands on. And then on the day, I thought, 'Alright, let's just see what happens.'"

Check out Jenna Ortega doing the Wednesday dance in the Saturday Night Live promo below:

A second season of Wednesday is currently in development. There was no way Netflix wasn't going to renew the show after it became one of the streamer's biggest originals ever, racking up more than a billion viewing hours over the course of a single month.

Ortega returns to the big screen this Friday, March 10, as Tara Carpenter in Scream VI. The latest entry in the meta slasher franchise moves the action from Woodsboro to New York City. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (of the Radio Silence film collective) returned to direct the sequel, working off a screenplay from James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

Chatting with SYFY WIRE in January of this year, Scream creator and executive producer Kevin Williamson described the impending chapter as a "fresh reinvention" of the property. "I love, love, love, love it. I’ve watched the movie with a big smile on my face. I think it's everything and more. And going to New York was awesome. The movie feels new, it feels fresh, it feels like a new movie."

Jenna Ortega hosts Saturday Night Live this Saturday evening at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC, alongside musical guest The 1975. The show streams simultaneously on Peacock, where all 48 seasons of SNL are currently available.