Jenna Ortega has revealed who her “dream character” would be to play from history.
Speaking during an interview with fellow Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Catherine O’Hara in which they were asked to name their four favourite films, the Wednesday star shortlisted The Passion Of Joan Of Arc as one of them.
The silent film, which was made in 1928, was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
“An actress that I love and it’s something that I’ve talked with Tim [Burton] a lot, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, the Dreyer film,” Ortega said.
“Renée Falconetti’s performance in that is absolutely insane. I feel like a dream character for me would be Joan Of Arc.”
The other films she listed were French crime drama La Haine, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and the neo-Western road film Paris Texas, which starred late Alien actor Harry Dean Stanton.
Meanwhile, Ortega and O’Hara also recently opened up about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s big dance scene at the end featuring their characters Astrid and Delia.
Opening up to NME about devising the moment, O’Hara explained that their moves were created by themselves, with the help of a choreographer.
“You were the inspiration behind the performance art aspect of it,” Ortega then said of her co-star. “I think it read on the page as a proper dance, and you sparked an idea.”
O’Hara elaborated: “I wanted the more… illogical to my mind… dance moves that kind of mean nothing in all modern… not all modern dance, modern dance is amazing.”
“We were in a tent right off set and we were like, ‘Oh it’s funny when you do that,’” Ortega recalled, O’Hara adding that her fellow star “laid down on the floor and did” a dramatic pose, and they “went for it”.
In NME‘s four-star review of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, we said the film is held together by director Tim Burton’s “wicked imagination” and is “filled with brilliantly ridiculous moments”.
“This film has its flaws, not least some unnecessary CGI sandworms that clash with the kitsch practical effects elsewhere, but its sense of fun never lets up. It’s silly, giddy and a little bit disgusting – just what we want from Beetlejuice.”