Wednesday's Werewolf Boot Camp Training Had Emma Myers Running On All Fours
While Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Addams is obviously the centerpiece of Netflix's "Wednesday," the rest of the cast is filled with other kooky and compelling characters. Gwendoline Christie is imposing as ever as Nevermore Academy's Principal Larissa Weems, and the ranks of Wednesday's schoolmates are filled with vampires (Naomi J. Ogawa), sirens (Joy Sunday), and gorgons (Georgie Farmer), among other terrifying creatures.
Of course, just because someone belongs to a race of traditionally horrific beasties doesn't mean that they can't be friendly, as proven by Emma Myers' Enid Sinclair. As a werewolf, Enid seems like the kind of person who'd get along great with Wednesday's dour spirit. However, when the two are paired up as roommates, their personalities instantly clash. Despite her wolfishness, Enid is bright, cheery, and an incurable gossip. Not exactly Wednesday's dream match, but that's all part of the show's wacky sense of cliché fun.
While Myers spends most of her time as Enid in human form, Tim Burton made sure to ingrain some proper werewolf behaviors as well. In fact, she and several other actors who also played lycanthropes on the show were run through a full-on "werewolf boot camp," according to Myers. And from the sound of it, the training was just as bizarre as you'd expect.
Getting into the werewolf spirit
All the voice lessons, acting training, and Shakespearean recitations in the world apparently aren't enough to prepare an actor to play a werewolf. At least, not on the set of "Wednesday." During an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Emma Myers discussed the specific, peculiar prep that she and the other lycanthrope actors had to go through in order to accurately portray their characters.
"We did this werewolf boot camp one time because, there's Episode 6 where the parents come, and all the family comes," Myers explained to Fallon. "I had four or five brothers, and they really had to get them into the werewolf spirit." Apparently, the "werewolf spirit" involves a lot of running around, climbing on things, and pretending to hunt, because that's exactly what the cast members were asked to do. "I've never done so much parkour in my life," Myers said. "It was me like, running on the floor on all fours, leaping over things." At one point, various stunt performers were even brought into the mix to play "sheep."
While that kind of rehearsal might seem odd on plenty of TV sets, it probably isn't the strangest thing to happen during one of Tim Burton's productions. The director, who once told the Belfast Telegraph that he "always related to characters like Frankenstein," is famous for crafting weird and grotesque stories. Werewolf boot camp just seems like par for the course.