In an interview given exclusively for “Weekend Adevărul”, Joy Sunday, Georgie Farmer and Isaac Ordonez left the universe of the “Wednesday” series and talked about the unbearable weight of being different, especially as a teenager, but as vulnerability and empathy are the real superpower of the world.
Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley), Joy Sunday (Bianca) and Georgie Farmer (Ajax). Photo: Tomasz Lazar
Nevermore … Tim Burton created a universe in a universe. Starting from the story of the Addams family, the American director lung, like a true Pygmalion, a Gothic matrioska: the Nevermore Academy. Let us imagine for a moment a doll house-and not anyway, but cold, gray, guarded by Gargoili, with large windows and Gothic hardware, of the 12th century, with twisted stone stairs and high halls, with successive arches-, and beyond each window-whether it is light, or it is a darkness, who did not keep up with the speed of trends, which nature may have created-outside or inside-as a post-mortem appreciated work. Of course, Burton’s universe is a fantasy, but deeply inspired by the extraordinary, by the people who gave it too much for what society defines as “normal”-too much silence, too much soul, too much loneliness, too much vision. There, in Nevermore, there are the ones who find the beautiful in what is defined as ugly, are the ones who have not worried about marginalization-who have not fled the world, but have sought a refuge. How many of us did not feel that way-misunderstood, set aside, wrong for subjective reasons? How many of us did not want to withdraw from the world, at least for a second, to be able to breathe and, perhaps, decide if we can continue?
Now, at the Nevermore Academy (geographically located in the Netflix series in the town of Jericho in the American state of Vermic)-where we could easily find them, in their adolescent version, Emily The Corpse Bride (Dead Bride), Edward Scissorhands, Victor Van Dort or Mrs. Lovett-, and are teachers, but also teachers, but also teachers who are … Specials: sirens, werewolves, gorgone, all kinds of teenagers who have supernatural capabilities.
Nevermore, in Tim Burton’s eyes. Photo: Netflix
After knowing the story of the Addams family face to face with the contemporary norms-since 1938, from the first comics, created by artist Charles Addams and published in “The New Yorker”-, now, Tim Burton brings it to the light of the reflectors on Wednesday (performed “Morbid” by the Magistral by Jenna Ortega) (in her role, with the cadaveric, but seductive silhouette, Catherine Zeta Jones) and Gomez Addams (a comic, lenient, and loving husband, subjected to the matriarchy, played by Luis Guzmán)-or, rather in the tenebras of the Academy-, but also places it in a context that should be familiar to her.
Mermaid song
One of the characters who are noted in the first season of the series as Wednesday’s rival and who in the second season becomes a key factor in the story is Bianca Barclay, a birth mermaid, whose power to control the mind and actions is only stopped by a medallion that he has permanently. Apparently, the character with Joy Sunday magnetism (28 years old) is the perfect cliché of the popular girl, an undeniable leader in high school, that Queen Bee American – a Queen of “Mean Girls”, the Gothic version and with principles. But it is the perfect example to prove that Burton’s series is not one about teenagers, but one that teaches you to look beyond appearances. After the strong and secure girl’s mask on her, Bianca strives to control her own story, caught in a failed business of her mother, Gabrielle, also a mermaid.
Bianca, Sirena-chief from Nevermore. Photo: Netflix
This season, Bianca is forced to use her powers contrary to her values, the blackmail being increasing: from the intimidation that her scholarship will be taken and so she will have to leave Nevermore until the death of her mother’s death. Taking a step in the back, we can easily see that it is the lesson of the constraint in the “manual” of the patriarch, so popular in everyday life. Carismatic and relaxed, Joy Sunday explained exclusively for “Weekend Adevărul” how this conflict approached, both to better outline the character, and to send a message, among the replies and looks, to girls and women following “Wednesday”: “First of all, it was very important for me to make sure that, although Bianca feels blocked, my interpretation does not convey the same sensation. I wanted to explore her past to understand how they would specifically respond to every moment or situation of constraint, pressure or instability. And, as for the way they reflect the experiences of many women today, I think the message that comes from Bianca this season is that you have to support friends and your loved ones when you face such pressures. Because, in an ideal world, he may have been able to avoid this if he had asked for help and the others would have known what goes through. I think it’s a beautiful message to send: not to feel obliged to do what is wrong ”. Or, more briefly, as Bianca emphasized in the series: “Fire tests gold, suffering puts a woman to test. ”
Fragility as superpowers
The story of Nevermore is complemented by Ajax Petropolus, a left and vulnerable gorgon, which, through its innocent comic, brings balance into the world full of dramas and black humor from Nevermore. Ajax hides his power to petrifice people – his snakes are well in the shelter of a big cap -, and the shyness in the eyes only tells us that, unlike his “relatives” of antiquity, revenge and wickedness are not part of his nature. About how he managed to control the contrast between myth and character, London actor Georgie Farmer (23 years old) said, exclusively for “Weekend Adevărul”: “I remember that before I enter the role of Ajax I researched Greek mythology about gorgoni and everything about them. But once brought to the Nevermore world, the emphasis was always on the way gorgons interact and behave at school. Ajax becomes more comfortable with itself and the fact that it is Gorgon and yes, to be more confident – which was very important to play this year. “
Ajax, teenager Gorgon from Nevermore. Photo: Netflix
The new season, recently published, gives more space to Pugsley, Wednesday’s younger brother, whose seemingly innocent story comes to intersect with the situation of police novel that his sister has to discern. Mezin syndrome who does not yet know how to handle (re) his family’s name, social pressure to integrate into a world of unintegrated, as well as childish enthusiasm, timidly sprinkled, to make friends, I make Isaac Ordonez, himself a 16-year-old teenager, to say for the “weekend”, who is in the weekend, who is in the weekend. Emotional is his strength: “Compassion and empathy are superpowers, they inspire others. And yes, they need to be more visible online especially for teenage boys.”
Although the center of the action is Wednesday and, by alliance, the Addams family, the story of Nevermore means, in short, the adolescence reflection in a gothic mirror, in a mirror where the differences are not anomalies. The Academy is the house of all crises before maturity, which, if not healed, are worn like a black and loaded cloud, above the head, all life. The first love, bullying, introvert, less popular hobbies, the need for validation, even to be different in a world of different-all wears the Gothic mask offered by Tim Burton, but they remain perfectly recognizable. The whole picture of being an outlaw in Nevermore means nothing but the “monstrosity” of being a teenager – a period that forms you, but should not follow you.
PLEGLEY, the addams family. Photo: Netflix
Acceptance: This is the motto that the actors from “Wednesday” are strengthened. “I would send to all teenagers who feel that they do not integrate not to apologize for who they are. I think we can get to the point to embrace everything-if we all understand how varied and different we are,” stresses Joy Sunday. The same advice is also offered by Isaac: “Don’t worry about fitting. Hug your differences. They make you be yourself. “ Georgie Farmer strengthens the words of his plateau colleagues and talks about confidence in a team, in a group, but especially in his own powers: “You will find your tribe and anyone will be your friend will accept you as you are. You can also be a lonely wolf; Some of the hottest people are lonely wolves. ”
The Gothic sets the tone
Beyond the obvious Burtonian aesthetics and the original fingerprint of the Addams family, the series “Wednesday” has also noticed through a formidable soundtrack, set to the head to reach one end of the demographic axis. The fragments of songs – from old to new, from classic to rock, from pop to Latin – have been perfectly suitable to strengthen the moments of maximum importance (and you will see how important it is, for example, a piano of the song “Zombie”, one at the cello of the song “Losing My Religion” or a well -placed “DANCING”). And as each of the three face characters have well-defined stories, I did not lose the opportunity to ask to choose a representative song. Thus, Joy chose as a song that he thinks would like Biancai “Where U has”, of artist Rina Sawayama; Isaac chose the new rock (more) – “i’m not ok” of the band My Chemical Romance; And Georgie said without much thinking that Ajax is fought Radiohead, especially the song “Let down”.
Dracula Fever
For a few minutes, the actors did an exercise in imagination and chose what superpowers in “Wednesday” would keep in real life. Joy Sunday and Georgie Farmer responded to Unison that he would like to be able to foresee the future. On the other hand, Isaac said he would like to be a vampire: “They can do everything, including reading people’s thoughts. Plus I like the Gothic style ”. And this is how, involuntarily, the discussion went to the filming of the first season – which took place in Romania, especially at Cantacuzino Castle in Bușteni, but also in various locations in Bucharest -, and, especially, one of the most important gothic characters of cinema: Dracula.
Part of the Group of Procs of Nevermore. Photo: Netflix
Even though “Wednesday” seems to be a series dedicated more to young people, it is not. Beyond the characters of all ages, who come to the package with specific problems – old age, morality problems, especially in terms of money, parental difficulties -, “Wednesday” urges us to value our differences, not to bury them, because they will turn into lead and will not bury us. And those who draw after them the traumas of adolescence, a single word to say, with the thought of Edgar Allan Poe: “Nevermore!”.
