When I watched the first season of Wednesday, I was blown away by Jenna Ortega’s performance and I genuinely thought “wow, where did she come from?” I truly didn’t realize that Ortega has been acting since she was a little kid and that I’d already seen her a dozen times before then. Part of that is because Wednesday Addams is such a specific character and look, but there is a shapeshifter element to Ortega, plus she has an “every woman” quality which… is going to give her a lot of career longevity. Jenna is promoting Scream VI, her second time in the (rebooted) franchise. She covers Elle and this is very much a “star is born” introductory piece given the overwhelming success of Wednesday. Some highlights:
Music is her preferred language. “I listen to absolutely anything. I know everyone says that but sometimes I’ll listen to stuff that I don’t even think is good because I just need to understand.”
She works constantly: “From ‘Action’ to ‘Cut’ is the only reason I like my job,” she says. Between those two directions, she says, “It’s like I pass the f–k out.”
The ‘Scream’ franchise: “I have so much respect for the franchise that I didn’t want to do it wrong. I wanted to do it justice, but I also didn’t want to be ripping anybody off.” In this movie, for the first time, Neve Campbell won’t reprise her role as Sidney Prescott. Campbell walked away, she told Variety, due to a salary negotiation that she felt undervalued her contribution as star of the 25-year-old franchise. “It was really unfortunate,” Ortega says of Campbell’s absence, “especially because Neve is the coolest, sweetest, most talented lady. The franchise wouldn’t be what it is without her.”
Ortega is naturally introverted. “If I want to make films so badly and I want to play characters or I want to direct and write film scores, I could do that all in my backyard. I don’t have to be doing it on a grand scale like this. But ultimately, all the other side stuff that comes with my job, sometimes it makes it feel like it’s almost not worth it. I don’t want to feel like a walking billboard, which is a really, really scary feeling because then you feel less and less in control of your life. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of people or know people who have succumbed to that pressure. I don’t want to belong to anyone or anything.”
Seeing ‘Man on Fire’ with Denzel & Dakota Fanning changed her life: “I was happy sitting and dissecting that movie over and over again. I couldn’t fathom how someone so young could do something that would scare me so aggressively. But I also loved the way that it made me feel. I decided that’s what I was passionate about.”
Her mom would drive her to auditions from northern California: “To do that four to five days a week and still raise your other children was absurd. My family made a lot of sacrifices.” The prospect of building her career was exciting—and daunting. “It was the guilt of, Okay, well if this doesn’t work out, I’m screwed, I guess. I just put my entire family through this because that’s a lot of money and time that we did not have.”
Is she really this dark horror/Wednesday person? “I feel very conflicted in what I’m interested in or what I’m passionate about, because there’s apart of me that always feels like the girl in the Coachella Valley.”
She doesn’t like traditional rom-coms: “I hate being googoogaga over a boy. I think it’s secretly a pride thing. It’s a problem with a lot of female characters, that a lot of them are guy oriented or what they’re expressing or emoting is based on a guy’s position and a guy’s story.”
She’s not dating: “Maybe I am too obsessed with my work, but the idea of relationships stresses me out. And also being that vulnerable with someone and having to get to know someone that well and having someone see you for all that you are… My brain knows that I don’t need to think about that right now.”
She comes across as charismatically neurotic, if you know what I mean? Like, she’s not burdened by deep neurosis, she’s just a young working-class woman who buries herself in work so she doesn’t have to figure out her own sh-t. She’s 20 – that sounds completely normal, especially given her talent and given “hustle culture.” I’m actually surprised she hasn’t done “more” already with her sudden fame from Wednesday, and that probably speaks to her inherent discomfort with the trappings of the industry. She just seems like “I don’t want to f–k this up, I want to keep working.” She will.
Cover & IG courtesy of Elle.
I think she’s actually only 20…?
Yes, you’re right, I corrected it!
I read this article in the magazine and found it seems like a good representation of her. I haven’t liked some of her interviews, but seeing it as neurotic rather than smug makes total sense. I don’t want Wednesday to go more horror as it seems to be a real hit with tweens as well and I prefer it to just keep the weird and kooky of the Addams family predecessors.
And she’s only 20. I hope she has a long career.
She was amazing in season 2 of You as Ellie. Would love to see her come back to mess with Joe in season 5. (She’ll probably be too busy, but it would be great)
She’s been in a ton of stuff! My kids recently discovered Stuck in the Middle on the Disney channel and she’s quite charming in that (bonus that it’s actually a watchable and delightful show, unlike most of what they put out for kids).
In this interview, she sounds like she loves her work but also feels the weight of the pressure of all the sacrifices her family made to get her to where she is today. I found that very relatable and it seems to keep her grounded, with a side of young adult neuroses to go with it.
Unpopular opinion, but I feel she will soon be blackballed if she doesn’t ‘play the game’ , I have read a few items on how difficult and uncooperative she is, it’s rare for a Producer(SNL ?) to publicly slate a rising star.
I agree. Yeah she’s been working for awhile now. But come on. The writers producers and directors have also. She may soon end up making those movies in her backyard if she doesn’t start learning to work with others.
Easy, Karen…
I had mixed opinions about how she talked about her work on Wednesday. On one side, I liked that she was crediting herself for the way she directed the character and the dance scene, however, other times when she talked about rewriting and disliking the direction it felt like she could be a difficult artist type.
I can’t see any SNL producer bashing her. It was Steve DeKnight who has never worked with her and had a pop over her rewriting comments.
Hence the question mark.
@ Noki – I’m answering your question.
Saying that an SNL producer bashed her for how difficult she was when she recently hosted is very different from a writer and producer who never worked with her. Can you see the distinction?
She was GREAT on snl don’t start false rumors about her professionalism,
I am not starting false anything, I said ‘SNL ?’ Because I could not remember from where the individual complained about her.
“Charismatically neurotic” is spot on, I feel simultaneously very protective of her and confident she’ll be just fine.
She has 5 projects coming up and 4 of them are already complete. She is still filming her movie with The Weeknd and I am very anxious to see what she will do in the future. She seems pretty bold with her choices and she looks like she has the talent to back those choices up. I believe we will be seeing a lot more of her in the coming years
I hope she does well because so many people are rooting for her, myself included. I hope being opinionated doesn’t make her a target. She’s young and has a lot to learn. And she’s so dang adorably beautiful. Hoping she has a long career full of ups and downs(mostly ups!). She deserves it!
Jenna gets all the passes. She is that rare non nepo that made it huge. Afterwards her hwood story is so common, family making sacrifices until she bankrolls the family. Every non nepo from Lindsay Lohan to Justin Bieber to Millie B brown has the same story. Her accent is huge (she is the biggest gen z star of the moment) and it’s gotta be a lot of pressure. I wish her the best.
She is fantastic in ‘Yes Day’, which was my son’s favourite movie a few years back on Netflix.
There was a short about her on YouTube that a fan created a month ago. That had 70 million views and counting in just 4 weeks. This is how amazingly popular this girl is and A Lot of people from literally all over the world is obsessed with her. She’s only 20, not even legal to drink alcohol in the states and she’s already an A-lister. She’s awesome as Wednesday Addams. She’s young but even at a young age is very articulate and smart – she’s pro-immigrants as she wants to bring attention to all the different ethnicities here in the US. She always is proud to represent the Latin community as well. I’m so rooting for her(esp she’s born and raised from my home state of California), she’s very talented and hey her first crush was Obama – that’s a great and mature choice already 😊 for someone at her age.