‘Wednesday’ Stars Emma Myers and Evie Templeton on Doing “The Dead Dance” and Fighting All Season Long

‘Wednesday’ Stars Emma Myers and Evie Templeton on Doing “The Dead Dance” and Fighting All Season Long

[This story contains major spoilers from Wednesday season two, Part 2.]

Wednesday Addams is not the sort of person who has a lot of friends. In fact, she’s happiest when she’s alone. It’s surprising, then, that in season two of Wednesday, she has not just one but two schoolmates vying for the role of her best friend: Her roommate, Enid (Emma Myers), whose candy-colored wardrobe is one of many ways she’s Wednesday’s polar opposite, and newcomer Agnes (Evie Templeton), the red-haired younger student who wields the power of invisibility both for mischief and good.  

Enid and Agnes have their differences — starting with (spoilers ahead!) Agnes’ plot to capture Wednesday’s attention by nearly killing Enid. But by the end of the season, they find some common ground and even share the spotlight, performing a dance routine to Lady Gaga’s “The Dead Dance” at Nevermore’s fundraising gala before joining forces to save Wednesday from being buried alive.

After the release of Wednesday season two, Part 2, THR chatted with Myers and Templeton about playing the enemies turned friends, their favorite moments this season and what it’s like being directed by director Tim Burton. We also tried to get the inside scoop on Enid’s future after the dire turn of events for her in the season finale, but as Myers deadpans: “They don’t like to keep us in the loop on anything.”  

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It’s fun to get to talk to you both because your characters spend most of the season at odds. Evie, what was it like to play that competitiveness with your character always trying to undermine Enid?

EVIE TEMPLETON It was fun. I always found it funny to go from having a nice, chatty conversation with Emma where we’d just be just talking about things. There was even a scene in the clock tower once where we went from doing the ballet barre on one of the railings to me having to try and kill her and Bruno. (Laughs.) So it was definitely fun having a back and forth with that.

Emma did you also enjoy the back and forth, or did you enjoy it more when you became more friendly toward the end of the season?

EMMA MYERS I love going back and forth with Evie, but I do love being friends. Enid’s always arguing with somebody, so it’s nice to not have to by the end of the season.

I think of Enid as a friendly person. She’s got a bubbly personality and is always wearing pink, but she has that edginess to her.

MYERS I like that she has a bit of a fiery personality.

Tell me about your dance scene in episode seven, to Lady Gaga’s “The Dead Dance.” Do you both have a lot of dance background, and how much practice did that take?

TEMPLETON We both have a bit of a background in dance, so it wasn’t too difficult to slip back into it. It was fun getting to workshop ideas and work with Corey [Baker], who is our choreographer, and see what worked and what didn’t. I definitely went back on some of the foundations I had from when I was younger.

You had sections of the dance where you got to pick up Emma, was that something you worried about?

TEMPLETON Oh, it was terrifying. All that was going through my head is, “Do not drop Em, please do not drop Emma.” But yeah, I was just clinging on so tight, I didn’t want to let her go.

MYERS And I was just like, “Don’t crush Evie, don’t crush Evie.”

Do you also have a lot of background in dance, Emma?

MYERS Yeah, I’ve been dancing since I was 2. I used to be a competitive dancer. So dance comes naturally to me, I think it was good that we both have dance backgrounds because they only gave us two weeks to rehearse until we were actually shooting, so had we not known how to dance before, then it would have been a disaster.

Was dance ever something you thought about doing for a career before you got into acting?

MYERS Not really, I just love it as an art form. I never wanted to force myself to do it as a career or anything. I just thought if I wanted to continue it, I would, but I’m not going to force myself to do something creative because then it just kind of defeats the whole purpose.

That’s a good outlook on it. After the dance, at the end of the season things don’t go well for Enid. She’s on the run and in her werewolf form, she might not be able to change back. When did you hear about that storyline, and what did you think about it?

MYERS I didn’t know until the week before we actually started shooting, because they don’t like to keep us in the loop for anything. So I didn’t get episode eight until like we started shooting episode eight. I think though, it’s a fitting ending. If anybody has to make that sacrifice for Wednesday, I’d love it to be Enid. And hopefully now in season three they won’t be bickering all the time, and they can actually be friends. It’s definitely an interesting plotline for Enid and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Do you think she’ll be changed by that in the end, or do you have any thoughts where it might go?

MYERS No thoughts whatsoever, honestly, I show up and I do what I’m told.

I also wanted to ask you about body swap episode. Did you and Jenna Ortega give each other tips on how to slip into each other’s characters?

MYERS We were both really honest with one another. If we saw each other doing something that wasn’t right, we would say it. And we were like, “Oh, you could do this instead though.” We just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a cheap imitation of one another. Because we didn’t know we were doing it until, again, last minute, so we didn’t get any rehearsal time really, so I think just being able to be honest with one another and giving each other ideas of how to play certain scenes was really key. I just made sure I had the physicality down because that’s I think what’s most important with Wednesday, is the physicality.

It really came across that you were Wednesday and vice versa. You’ve said in past interviews that you don’t feel that you personally are very much like Enid. Are there any ways you wish you were more like her?

MYERS I guess I wish … no, I like who I am. I’ll say that.

Fair enough. Evie, do you feel like you’re pretty similar to Agnes, or was that a stretch?

TEMPLETON I’m quite different to her. I promise, I’m not creepy all the time. I always love getting to play characters that are different to me, and also getting to play characters that are similar to who I am in natural day-to-day life is also fun. But Agnes has a bit of a dual personality, which is cool to play around with. It was nice to see how she develops and how she has a bit more trust in herself by the end and values herself a little bit more. She’s not hiding in anybody else’s shadow or trying to be anybody who she’s not by the end. I think that’s an important message. I think one of Emma’s lines is, “Be your own psycho,” and that’s a cool message.

Do you like where she is at the end, or do you wish there’s advice you could give her?

TEMPLETON Earlier in the season I would have just told her, “Stop, please. This is not the right way to go about making friends,” to be honest, and to sort of seek advice from Enid. Because she’s the one who is the best friend, so if that’s what she wanted she should have just gone straight to the source.  

And this was your first project of such a big scale. Was that scary stepping onto set with someone like Tim Burton and some of the members of the cast who are so well known? 

TEMPLETON It was very scary. I still can’t really that believe it ever happened. It feels very surreal. I remember my first day on set, I didn’t realize I would be meeting everybody and I just turned a corner onto Wednesday and Enid’s dorm set and then suddenly everybody was there. So, it was kind of overwhelming, but Jenna and Emma have been like big sisters to me and helped guide me through everything, so I’m very grateful to them for that.

What are some of the things you’ve learned through this experience?

TEMPLETON Oh my gosh, so much. Just from getting to watch everybody work and seeing everybody’s creative process, and being directed by Tim Burton — he really is a genius, so getting to be immersed in the magic of Nevermore was very special, and creating memories with the amazing cast is unbelievable.

Did you have a favorite moment in the season?

TEMPLETON One of my favorite moments was probably the Sum of Your Parts meeting. That was funny on the day because everyone was in blue suits with just like an arm or a leg sticking out or like two little eyeballs on tripods that were going (mimics a cartoony noise) while I was trying to cry and be all vulnerable.

Emma, how about you?

MYERS Probably our dance, honestly, that was the most fun I’ve had this past season and it was fun to get to release all the energy through dancing.

I was wondering how the invisibility worked, how did they manage that? Did you have to wear a blue suit during parts of the dance, Evie?

TEMPLETON I didn’t wear a blue suit myself. Basically, we did three passes of it, so we did one where I did the lifts and would start to turn and do it myself, and one of the dancers would put on a blue suit and do the same thing again, and they’d put Emma on a stunt rig and I’d step on and then step off at the right moment so it would work if they wanted to do a top shot, so that’s how they did it.

I’m sure you’re both coming back for next season, but do you have any other projects you’re working on in the meantime?

MYERS Yeah, we’ve both got stuff that hasn’t been announced. We’re both busy bees.

TEMPLETON Busy gals.

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Wednesday season two, Part 2, released Sept. 3 and is now streaming on Netflix.Read THR’s coverage on the season.