Jenna Ortega has shared a great piece of advice from her cello teacher on the set of Wednesday: when in doubt, channel the confidence of “the average white man.”
In a recent video interview with Vanity Fair, the Wednesday star spoke about how that advice changed her life. “The show that I do right now I have to play the cello, and I don’t play the cello,” Ortega explained, after being asked for some good advice she has received from a mentor. “I want it to look real so that cellists don’t look at it and call me mean names.”
She continued, “My teacher told me that as long as I looked confident in my movements and I was strong and stoic and, you know, fully embodied the character that it would be fine. She told me that I just needed to approach everything I do in life with the confidence of the average white man and that changed my life. [That made me] feel better.”
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Ortega added that internalizing the advice also helped her prepare for the Vanity Fair interview. “I was nervous even to do this because I ramble like crazy,” she admitted. “Like what am I going to talk about this whole time? Then I just remembered: How would an average white man do this? And he probably would’ve shown up with mismatched socks.”
Watch the full interview below. The relevant discussion begins around the 3:15 mark.
With her latest film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ready to hit theaters on September 6th, Ortega is currently back in production for Season 2 of Wednesday. Last year, Ortega hinted that the next installment would “lean into” horror.
