Wednesday star Jenna Ortega hit by backlash for revealing she 'started changing ... trends now

Jenna Ortega's reveal that she routinely changed lines in hit show Wednesday's script and became 'almost unprofessional' has been criticized by fans and TV writers.

The actress, 20, who plays the titular role in the Netflix phenomenon, raised eyebrows when she admitted she was not always happy with the script and began tweaking her lines in an interview on the Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard podcast.

She said: 'There were times on that set where I even became unprofessional, in a sense, where I just started changing lines,' she said.  

 'The script supervisor thought I was going with something,' she explained, 'and then I would have to sit down with the writers, and they'd be like, 'Wait, what happened to the scene?' And I would have to go through and explain why I couldn't do certain things.' 

Writer Michael Sheridan tweeted: 'Yeesh... now I get why writers are getting a bit upset about her comments. The way this is framed... it appears she claims she knew better than the writers, better than Tim Burton, & she's why the show was a hit. 

'I don't know if she meant that, but that's how this reads.'

The Act co-writer Michelle Dean wrote: 'Well another dynamic going on here is that she's a teenage girl being instructed by male writers and male directors about how a teenage girl might behave 

'It's not the only dynamic here. but neither is the 'just shut up and say the words' approach to performers the only one we need to look at

'So those writers in the room are not showrunners on set with this young woman, necessarily! You don't have to think people can only write from their experience to allow that it's possible there might be some nuances outside the writers' experience that an actor can contribute. 

'I don't know anything about what happened on set or off set here, but there are quite a lot of actors who change their lines, it's not weird or unusual, especially in tv when the scripts tend to change a lot. I guess I just think we don't have to scare actors into compliance!

Journalist Mark Harris retorted: 'I'd just hope that contribution would come some way other than by rewriting them on set, explaining it only after the fact, and then publicly trashing the writers. 

'I mean, 'I want an arc'/'You don't have an arc' seems kind of big to try to solve on set, in the moment!'

Fans also flocked to social media to comment on the controversial interview - with Ortega deleting her Twitter account shortly after the podcast was released.

One wrote: 'If true, it's so disrespectful. Why not talk to the writers?' while a second typed: 'Feel free to retire from acting if it's so hard Jenna!'