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Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd are dishing on their new comedy horror film “Death of a Unicorn.”
“Extra” spoke with Jenna and Paul at SXSW, where they opened up about their somewhat awkward first meeting in an airport lounge before filming.
Jenna recalled, “I was writing in my journal and we already knew we were doing the movie together, and I was doing ‘Beetlejuice’ and you were doing ‘Ghostbusters’ and we both were in London.”
Paul chimed in, “I saw you sitting there and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I think we’re gonna be working together on this thing pretty soon,’ and I went over and said hello, but I wasn’t sure if it was you. I walked over — I did that approach like, ‘Is that…?’ Then I felt a little stalkery.”
Jenna added, “I felt like you were standing there for a while because when I write, sometimes, if I don’t know what to write and I kind of was getting to the end of my page anyway, I’ll just write exactly what’s happening in the moment, and I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s been staring at the, you know, board for a really long time,’ and then I looked up and it was Mr. Rudd.”
Paul admitted, “There was that moment where I’m like, ‘I think that’s Jenna.’ I haven’t met her and you’re in that awkward space where, like, I guess, I’m gonna look at the departure board to make it — in case it’s not… And then finally, you looked up.”
Jenna confessed, “I was kind of nervous, I think, because it caught me off guard, and I was kind of in a weird place in my life, so I had a bit of a jump scare.”
She raved of Paul, “Not only have I heard incredible things — I feel like we’ve worked with a lot of the same people — but he is so sweet and you just instantly relax, which I think is a really special quality to possess, which made me feel really good about the job and what was coming next.”
Paul praised Jenna, calling her “incredible,” adding of the movie, “Everything that works is because of what she can do, I think.”
In “Death of a Unicorn,” Paul and Jenna play a father and daughter who accidentally hit and kill a unicorn with their car, which leads to them being hunted down by the mythological creature’s parents.
They talked about how hard it was to keep a straight face amid all the chaos unfolding in the movie, especially for Jenna, who had to play her character more straight and sincere.
Jenna was “always breaking” character, saying, “I had the worst job because I wasn’t even in on the action. I had to try to stop the action and look at them with tears in my eyes half the time and that was hell.”
Jenna also teased “Wednesday” Season 2, saying, we’ll see Wednesday kicking some butt, but also, “Wednesday also gets her butt kinda kicked.”
She continued, “What really impressed me about this season is, I think, you really see Wednesday in a place where it doesn’t seem like she can win, which how could that ever be the possibility? I remember it was really strange to play and I was trying to find the most authentic way to play that.”
Jenna added, “Enid wolfs out now. Tyler is back. There’s an psych ward, as there should be. It’ll be good.”
“Death of a Unicorn” is out March 28.