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Wednesday Behind-The-Scenes Shots Reveal Thing Was Portrayed By A Real Actor

Jimmy Henton

Within a week after its premiere, Wednesday bears out Stranger Things Season 4 and is now the most-watched English-language TV show on the platform. As the show’s fandom keeps growing strong, Netflix has started sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits about how the movie series was brought to life.
And Thing, the beloved “family pet” of the Addamses, becomes one of the most favorite “characters” in the movie.

Thing is sent to Nevermore Academy by Morticia and Gomez Addams to accompany Wednesday at her new school in Jericho, Vermont. The appendage swiftly turns into Wednesday’s loyal companion as she unravels a supernature murder secret that linked to her parents 25 years ago.
You’ll never believe the special effects magic that went into making the movie’s scenes.


While a lot of people assumed that Thing was a creation of CGI, it turns out Thing is actually played by a real actor, Victor Dorobantu. Victor is a Romanian magician and illusionist, and Wednesday is actually his first acting role. On Twitter, Netflix shared behind-the-scenes pictures of Victor and Jenna in character, and, undoubtedly, we’re captivated by the commitment.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Jenna revealed the process of perfecting Thing, its movements, and its language. “It was so funny because the Thing language was just made up on the day.

Every day we’d show up and go, ‘Ahhh…’ [hand motions] ‘That looks right. I feel like I kind of know what he's saying,’” she shared.
“[Victor] would wear a full blue suit, and he would hide behind walls and underneath beds. Then they built this prosthetic on top of his hand so that it looked like a wrist knob, and he would walk around,” Jenna went on. “Tim really liked his mannerisms, and he would spend hours in hair and makeup every day just getting that hand on. Then we’d shoot some stuff with him, and other times we would shoot with absolutely nothing there.”


Moreover, the reason that the behind-the-scenes images of Thing are so mind-blowing. The new pics demonstrate that Thing, who was presumed by many to be entirely CGI animation, was actually portrayed by a real actor named Victor, who is also a magician.

We can see Victor and series star Jenna Ortega filming their scenes together, with Victor dressing in a blue special effects bodysuit. The only part of his body that was disclosed was… well, his hand. Victor can be seen wheeled along on a camera dolly, hiding the rest of his body behind corners and under tables, and crouching behind Jenna.



It's shocking to see that Victor was in such awkward positions IRL, as his hand-acting was anything but — he's already accepted praise from supporters for the emotional expression and personality of his character.

"It's a really hard process because you have to show emotion through a simple hand that doesn't have a voice or subtitles," Victor told Entertainment Tonight earlier this month. "It's a lot of hard work to show emotion through a hand. I know a lot of people won't understand, but after they see the season, they will get it." They absolutely get it now.

“I'm laughing 'cause Jenna really had this man with her every time Thing was on scene??? This is amazing,” wrote one buff in reaction to the behind-the-scenes shots.


“I'm obsessed with the special effects for Thing on Wednesday, the prosthetic stump is awesome, a combination of practical and VFX is so nice," noted another.
"The whole process was very hard. The thing was created from scratch," Victor elaborated to Popsugar.

"We just improvised and we tried to make it natural."
While speaking to Screen Rant on the day of the show's premiere, Jenna Ortega said that Tim Burton's vision for Thing always involved a real actor and that Victor “would spend hours in hair and makeup every day just getting that hand on.”