The Secrets of Wednesday’s Shadowy Black Cello

Aug 28, 2023

By Anthony Breznican

Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams does not talk openly about such things as feelings. Her version of a heartfelt confessional is clear from this line: “I act as if I don’t care if people dislike me. Deep down…I secretly enjoy it.” Yet the Wednesday series gives her a tool for expression that is as effective as it is iconic: her midnight black cello.

As far as props go, it was one of the most memorable of the past year, turning up in two crucial scenes of the Netflix series. In one, she thrums her way through a tumultuous cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” over a montage of murder suspects in the mystery that vexes her. In another, her displeasure at joining the local band in an oompah version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” is palpable. This gives way to unsmiling joy as her fiery prank disrupts the cloying town ceremony unveiling a new fountain. As explosions erupt, she slips into a chilling performance of the “Winter” concerto from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

At another point in the series, a moody, monochromatic painting of Wednesday made by her friend Xavier (Percy Hynes White) appears to come to life, performing a version of Elgar’s “Concerto in E Minor.” “I can hear you up there playing,” he tells her. “I can tell how you got lost in the music. I feel like it’s the only time I get to see the real you.”

That’s exactly what creators and showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough had in mind. Along with Mark Scruton, Wednesday’s Emmy-nominated production designer, they spoke to Vanity Fair (prior to the current SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes) about how they worked with director Tim Burton to select the perfect instrument for the macabre young heroine.

Cocreator and showrunner Alfred Gough: We wanted to find something that could express her emotional side because she’s not a character that has a lot of emotion and she’s not somebody who’s going to express that. Obviously, Thing is her confidant, but we wanted to let the audience in and see what she’s like when she’s playing an instrument. What we loved about the cello is it felt very classical and it felt hard. It’s not an instrument that most people would play. That’s how we narrowed in on it.

Cocreator and showrunner Miles Millar: It’s the intensity of being able to play it, the physicality of that, and obviously, the visual of her size versus the cello. It’s a big thing to lug around. This teenage girl next to the cello felt like a really interesting visual. She’s so contained, this is a release for her—being able to really release this emotion she can’t express or vocalize. But she can through music. It was like stress relief. Instead of hitting the gym, she hits the cello as a way to just release those inner feelings.

By Hillary Busis

By David Canfield

By Sarah Catherall

Production designer Mark Scruton: She had so few things and everything’s very pared back. Everything in her space was so agonized over because there were only 10 objects in her whole side of the room. The cello was central to that. We sourced different versions of it. I think we got about six in the end, if I remember rightly, of different styles. More antique ones, more up-to-date ones…

Mark Scruton: At one point, it was almost like a car-lacquer finish, with a super-high shine. A black, modern one. But in the end, her character became this eclectic mix of traditional and new. She always came back to the historical elements of it. So all the items in her space have been specifically designed so they have a story of sorts behind them. When we got to the cello, I think Tim made the final choice on which one it was going to be.

The older cellos were all bought used, and none were especially valuable. Some were worn and damaged.

Mark Scruton: There’s no point in buying six identical or brand-new ones. They don't have the feel of somebody who’s played it for years.

One of these was selected by Burton to be Wednesday’s prized instrument.

Mark Scruton: I would love to be able to tell you the exact history, but they were scoured from all sorts of antique shops, and they came in from all over the place. We were in Romania, but we brought stuff in from London, from New York.

The grains in the wood, the knocks and marks where people have played it in the past, all of that history we wanted to keep, but we wanted to just get rid of the majority of the color and the warmth inherent in those type of instruments. There were certain little quirks to it, which made it individual, and it was beautiful.

Miles Millar: We liked the visual of a black instrument. And also, the cello is a melancholy instrument. It sounds sad. The attitude of a cello feels very Wednesday.

Mark Scruton: Then we had to Wednesday-fy it, which was the process we did to everything she had. We stripped it back of its initial varnish, and we dyed everything black, so you kept a degree of the color and degree of the texture. You never lost the original character of it, but it was desaturated.

Miles Milar: The cello also spoke to her intelligence, her sense of breadth of cultural knowledge, since she embraces classical music as easily she does the greats from the ’60s and jazz era. She’s got such an incredible knowledge of music, but not necessarily contemporary music, which she abhors. She knows “Paint It, Black,” but she also knows Elgar. That breadth is another way to express her uniqueness.

By Hillary Busis

By David Canfield

By Sarah Catherall

Alfred Gough: The great thing about Wednesday is that, as a character, she’s of-the-moment and timeless. And “Paint It, Black” feels timeless. It's known by so many generations and it’s also a song we were like, Oh, I bet that would sound good on a string instrument. We actually came to that pretty early, that was our first choice when we wrote the treatment.

We have excellent music supervisors who were able to track down the rights. Most movies, when you’re using an actual Stones track, that’s one level of cost. I think to use the music for violin, guess what? Not cheap, but not…

Miles Millar: Yeah, it didn’t break the bank. What was interesting, as we went through the season, was actually finding top tracks that could be arranged for a cello, [which was] actually very difficult. You need a really strong melody that’s going to take you through it.

A lot of songs we tried and thought, This is an iconic song, but it didn’t work because it’s too repetitive or there’s not enough variation in the melody. “Paint It, Black” actually was perfect because it had a lot of modulations as you went through it and a very iconic theme, so it worked. We couldn’t believe we got it.

Miles Millar: It’s not her on the soundtrack, but she practiced very hard and she fell in love with a cello. She was really dedicated and really knew how to play it, so you could see her technique. I’m sure she would say she wasn’t as great as it could have been, but we had this teacher there saying that she did incredibly well at the time. She learned all the pieces as she went through the season. I think it’s pretty remarkable, just to sit there and learn an instrument from scratch.

By Hillary Busis

By David Canfield

By Sarah Catherall

Mark Scruton: She had a practice one that she played with most of the time. And I think we probably should have maybe spent more time with the real one, because obviously when you change to the hero one, which was obviously so precious, it was that classic thing of, “Oh, this isn’t the same as the one I normally play on.” We sort of kept it wrapped in cotton wool for safety’s sake. It was unfortunate, but when you only have one of these things, you need to keep it close by.

Miles Millar: The other big, big moment for the cello is episode three. Wednesday’s a big prankster, and she's at the unveiling of a fountain where she is playing reluctantly playing a Fleetwood Mac melody with the local band, and then she hijacks that and begins playing Vivaldi. The chaos is unfolding around her and she’s sitting there playing. It’s just a great moment that I think really speaks to both her attitude. The music is perfect and she is in the eye of the hurricane that she’s created.

The instrument’s next appearance will be in Wednesday, season two…

Mark Scruton: All her key props were very carefully put into storage. The difficulty with instruments is trying to maintain them when they’re not played and they’re not constantly tuned. But I think that one has been given special treatment, I hope.

Some slight edits have been made to add clarity and context.

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