Jenna Ortega has revealed the extreme lengths she would go to as a child actor to ensure she was not “in the way of anybody”.
The actor rose to fame most prominently thanks to her role as the titular spooky youngest sibling of the Addams Family in Netflix’s Wednesday in 2022. At the time of the first series, she was 20 years old.
Before then, however, Ortega enjoyed success as a child star. She was nine when she appeared in the CW hit comedy series Jane the Virgin.
She landed a leading role in the Disney show Stuck in the Middle. Her other early credits include Richie Rich, and Elena of Avalor.
In a new interview with Esquire, Ortega, now 23, reflected on her positive experience as a child star.
“I really had it going for me as a child ‘cause I can’t think of one mistake I made,” she said. “Is that a terrible thing to say? I feel like I make mistakes now all the time, but as a child, I was so grateful and so excited to be there that my game face was on.”
That said, however, Ortega noted she did not feel comfortable asking for anything – including food or water – on set.
“I wasn’t asking for a sip of water,” she recalled. “I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody.”
Ortega added: “Maybe that was my mistake, was not actually looking after myself.”
Asked for her opinion on the negative stereotypes about child stars, the actor replied: “Is it wrong to say that a lot of them are true? And do with that what you will.”
She later explained that “the motivation” behind her career was sparked very young when she first told her parents she wanted to be an actor.
“I was 7 years old when I said I wanted to do this,” Ortega said. “My parents laughed at me when I told them that I wanted to do it, and then that was kind of the root of everything. The motivation. And I never really stopped, because I’m very stubborn. And then I never questioned it.”
Ortega will play the titular lead in Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun, which is due out in October. She will also reprise her fan-favourite role as Wednesday Addams in the third season of Tim Burton’s Netflix hit, which is expected to debut in 2027.
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