Jenna Ortega Gets Brutally Candid on Post-'Wednesday' Fame: "I Was an Unhappy Person"
Netflix’s Wednesday came as a breakthrough moment in Ortega’s career, somehow becoming the main reason why she is trying to stay away from her character’s image as much as possible – here’s why.
Before the Tim Burton-directed horror drama series Wednesday came around, Jenna Ortega could be seen in lots of other prominent titles, but things quickly went in a wrong direction after one of Netflix’s biggest hits to-date was released.
Wednesday’s immense popularity took its toll on its leading actress too, helping her rise to stardom and opening doors to the big cinema world, but also making Ortega feel like the show has distanced her from everyone around.
Jenna Ortega Says ‘Wednesday’ Made Her Feel “Incredibly Misunderstood”
Despite starring in both movies and shows ever since she was a child, Ortega woke up to the status of one of the biggest TV stars back in 2022 after getting a leading role in Netflix’s Wednesday.
The show eventually amassed the biggest viewership that the streamer has ever had, ending up as the most-watched English-language TV series on Netflix with more than 250 million views.
The sudden fame, however, wasn’t all that sunshine and rainbows, according to Ortega.
“To be quite frank, after the show and trying to figure everything out, I was an unhappy person. After the pressure, the attention — as somebody who’s quite introverted, that was so intense and so scary”, the actress revealed in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
Apart from that, the actress added that speculations about her life and career that started right after Wednesday’s release also made her feel misunderstood by the entire society.
“I feel like being a bully is very popular right now. Having been on the wrong side of the rumor mill was incredibly eye-opening”, Ortega said.
‘Wednesday’ Also Forced Jenna Ortega to Opt for More Versatile Roles
Despite the show’s hiatus of almost three years that will come to its end this August with Wednesday’s season 2, the actress has already been seen in two movies this year, with two more coming sometime later.
More recently, Ortega starred in The Weeknd-led and inspired musical thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow while just a couple of months back she was one of the leads in A24’s comedy horror Death of a Unicorn. Ortega’s upcoming projects also include Cathy Yan’s thriller movie The Gallerist and Taika Waititi’s dystopian sci-fi film Klara and the Sun.
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As the actress revealed, a range of roles this big is also a choice she made while trying to escape that one-role actor status after Wednesday’s success.
However, she is grateful to those who praised her breakthrough performance and tends to keep her fans entertained with new roles.
“I want to be able to give back to them. But I also want to do things that are creatively fulfilling to me. So it’s finding that balance of doing movies that they might be interested in and then doing movies that I’m interested in. [I want roles that are] older and bolder and different. And then I want to be able to line up all of my girls and see something different in all of them”, Ortega stated.
