After a while, Victor Dorobantu was able to communicate with Jenna Ortega through only his hand. During an emotional scene where Thing’s life is on the line, Ortega confessed during her interview on Hot Ones that his subtle yet compelling performance drove her to cry for real.
“It actually was that Thing operating scene where — they weren’t on him, but it’s the first and only time Wednesday cries,” she said. “And I went to like reach my hand out to him, and he pet my hand like he was comforting me, and I actually started crying […] and that was a real bonding moment for Victor and I.”
It wasn’t an easy shoot day for Dorobantu either. The hand actor loved performing in this sequence because the highly emotional content presented a huge challenge.
“My favorite scene is the one where Thing is with Wednesday and Fester — I’m not spoiling everything, but you know what I’m talking about,” Dorobantu told Slate. “That’s my favorite scene because Thing really tried to give everything a hand can give. Being woken up after a near-death experience, it’s very hard to act [that out] without a whole body, you know? That’s my favorite because all my friends told me that they cried at that scene.”
Dorobantu didn’t even have time to connect with his “Wednesday” co-stars before shooting, and apparently fabricated his hand movements entirely in the moment. “I didn’t have too much time to practice or to rehearse,” he admitted. “That scene, it was just improvising on the spot. I hope I’m not wrong, but I think [Ortega] came up with the idea of giving the pinky promise, so everything was just improvisation.”