Bringing a Wednesday Addams solo series had been in the works for years, but it finally hit at the right time with director Tim Burton and star Jenna Ortega making the Netflix original series its second most-watched series of all time. However, making Wednesday what it eventually became from what it was initially set out to be required Ortega to put her foot down in a way she never has before.

On a recent episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, Ortega claimed that many of the original scripts made no sense to her from a character perspective. It got to be so much, that she went ahead and changed the dialogue without giving notice to any of the production staff, including the writers and director.

“When I read the entire series, I realized, ‘Oh, this is for younger audiences,'” Ortega said (via Insider). “When I first signed onto the show, I didn’t have all the scripts. I thought it was going to be a lot darker. It wasn’t. I didn’t know what the tone was, or what the score would sound like.”

The actress added that she felt that everything that Wednesday does did not make sense for her character at all, especially her being in a love triangle. She even admitted at being borderline “unprofessional” to make sure the character felt real to her.

“There was a line about a dress she has to wear for a school dance and she says, ‘Oh my god I love it. Ugh, I can’t believe I said that. I literally hate myself.’ I had to go, ‘No.’ There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”

Ortega said it was director Tim Burton who “did not want me to have any expression or emotion at all” when she was playing Wednesday. “He wanted a flat surface, which I understand,” she said. “It’s funny and great except when you’re trying to move a plot along, and Wednesday is in every scene.”

These sentiments might seem shocking, but even as far ago as last October, Ortega expressed the need to change things for the better. She even went as far as saying she felt defeated in the first month of the production as no one trusted her judgment in the creative direction.

“There were a lot of battles like that because I felt like people didn’t always trust me when I was creating my path in terms of, ‘Okay, this is her arc. This is where she gets emotional,'” Ortega said at the time. “I was completely lost and confused. Typically I have no problem using my voice, but when you’re in it–I just remember feeling defeated after the first ​​month.”

With the changes in place, Wednesday became an absolute monster hit. It was released on Netflix on November 23 to mostly positive reviews from critics, (you can read Gamespot’s review here) who praised Ortega’s performance. The show also received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for Ortega.

It was announced back in January that Netflix would be renewing Wednesday for a second season.