Producer Steven DeKnight praised actress Jenna Ortega as an “amazing talent” on Wednesday, a week after calling her “beyond the law and toxic.” He attributed his harsh criticism to an “unfortunate situation”.
DeKnight, who produced the TV series “Daredevil” and “Spartacus,” had not worked with Ortega before offering his opinion. She reacted strongly to the star’s admission that she “became almost unprofessional in a way, where I just started changing lines” on his hit Netflix series on Wednesday.
“I’d have to sit down with the writers and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I would have to go and explain why I couldn’t do certain things,” Ortega told Dax Shepard on a podcast last week.
DeKnight tweeted that Ortega’s comments were “beyond the law and toxic” and asked her how she would feel if the showrunners talked publicly about how difficult it is.
“Life is too short to deal with these people in business,” DeKnight wrote, again praising Ortega’s work.
After a rebuke from people on social media, DeKnight softened his tone.
“I can’t stress this enough – he’s an amazing talent,” he said he tweeted on Wednesday. “It was just an unfortunate situation to publicly expose creative differences.”
“And I also recognize that the writers are nervous about the upcoming strike, myself included,” added DeKnight, whose credits include “Pacific Rim: Uprising” and “Smallville.”
HuffPost could not immediately reach Ortega for comment.
The actor recently appeared to promote “Scream VI” after “Wednesday” proved a hit in its first season, with Ortega playing Wednesday from “Addams Family” in an updated version.
The series has been renewed for a second season.
