When Laguna Niguel actress Kayden Brenna Tokarski — who turns 16 this weekend — got a call back for an audition for a TV commercial, she had a feeling it might have something to do with one of her favorite actresses and shows so she prepared accordingly.
Tokarski, who turns 16 on Sunday, said she got an audition for the commercial from an agent she had just signed with and had no idea what it was for.
The script indicated her character would be Willow Anderson, the initials of Wednesday Addams, from one of her favorite shows on Netflix, “Wednesday.”
“They wanted me to wear pigtails, but the character description was a little bit vague,” Tokarski told City News Service. “They wanted deadpan and dark. I thought, huh, that’s interesting, so I was shocked when I got a call a few days later and I found out it was for Wendy’s.”
Tokarski was intent on making a strong impression so she asked if she could do the “Wednesday Dance” that actress Jenna Ortega does on the popular Netflix series.
“I wanted to stand out,” she said. “I brought my phone in and asked them, `Can I do the Wednesday Dance?’ They were super cool about it. It was pretty awesome.”
Her proud mother, Kelly Tokarski, said the director later posted video of her daughter’s dance on social media, praising her performance.
Kayden is a rising star, with one of her most highest-profile credits playing a young Martha Mitchell, the wife of Watergate-era Attorney General John Mitchell, in the 2022 Starz limited series, “Gaslit.”
But she was especially thrilled to portray Wednesday in Wendy’s tie-in commercial advertising its “Meal of Misfortune” to promote the second season of the Netflix series.
“I am such a huge fan of `Wednesday’ and Jenna Ortega,” Kayden said. “I first became a fan of Jenna Ortega when she was on `Stuck in the Middle.’ `Wednesday’ really changed things up and people started seeing her as a serious actor. I really just tried to emulate everything she does. I watched a lot of her interviews as well.”
Now Kayden is hearing from friends and relatives all over the country who have seen the Wendy’s commercial, which features the character Wednesday touting the Meal of Misfortune as she picks up an order at a restaurant on a stormy, spooky night.
“Unfortunately, I’ve only had one so far,” she said.
“But it was as torturous as it looks and I definitely enjoyed the anguish,” she said with a chuckle.
She went to a local Wendy’s drive-through with her father, who is helping her prepare to take her driver’s license test, and ordered her meal in character.
“I said, `I’m Wednesday Addams,’ and there was just silence. I don’t even know what (the clerk) was thinking,” Kayden said, laughing. “Then I was so nervous because I was so deadpan and dry with her on the intercom thing.”
When she picked up the order, “I was super nice because I felt like I was so dry when I ordered it. I said, `Have such a great day!”
During filming of the commercial she said she had a panicky moment as the water machines simulated rain. She was wearing a vintage dress from Warner Brothers that dated back to the 1950s and some of the old red dye in it was leaking onto the white t-shirt she had on underneath.
“That was our one dress so there was no backup and we had to make it work. It was so scary,” she said. “I felt like it was my fault in a way even though it wasn’t.”
The dress was so fragile, “I couldn’t sit the last day of filming because it would rip,” she said.
Kayden is hoping she might get a call to be on the Netflix series. She worked with one of the actors, Michael Anthony Hall, on the sci-fi film “Roswell Delirium.”
“It would be funny to have a full-circle moment with him on the `Wednesday’ cast,” she said.
Next up for the actress is the first day of 11th grade on Thursday and the release of “Bruton,” a biopic about Bryan Bruton, who spent a decade in a Florida prison on a manslaughter conviction. Kayden plays the daughter to star Theo Rossi.
She will also star in “Curse of the Vandor,” starring Dee Wallace.