Jenna Ortega’s life changed in the blink of an eye!
The actress, 22, opened up about her rise to fame in an interview with V Magazine published on Monday, April 28. During the chat, she sat down with The Weeknd, 35, who asked her if she ever misses the “anonymity” she had in the early days of her career.
“Oh, most definitely,” Ortega said, before explaining that starring as the titular character in Netflix’s Wednesday was the changing factor. “I mean, that was just a few years ago. I’d done some shows and was working in film, but it wasn’t until that show, the day of the week [Wednesday], that just catapulted everything.”
Courtesy of Netflix
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in ‘Wednesday’
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The actress continued, “As grateful as I am, and it was a dream role, it was so nice to have had way less pressure. I love the hustle. There’s something about the actor’s come-up and struggle that I really enjoyed.”
She described the scrappiness of her early days in the industry as, “Sleeping in the cars, driving all around LA for auditions, and waiting for weeks, feeling sick to my stomach that I wasn’t going to get the job I really wanted. The adrenaline rush of it all was so exciting.”
“I don’t know if it’s common, or if you can relate to this, but it kind of feels like you’re perpetually in this loop of anxiety,” she said to The Weeknd. “I hold so much more pressure and weight in my body than I ever did, and I think it’s just kind of the expectation of it all.”
Ortega came up as a child actor in Jane the Virgin from 2014 to 2019, in which she starred as the younger version of the title character, played by Gina Rodriguez. She also starred in Stuck in the Middle, the Disney Channel animated series Elena of Avalor and the second season of Netflix’s You, before the release of Wednesday. As for movies, the actress starred in Insidious: Chapter 2, The Babysitter: Killer Queen and Yes Day.
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Jenna Ortega at the “State of the Industry” and Lionsgate Presentation as part of CinemaCon 2025 on April 1, 2025 in Las Vegas.
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Wednesday, created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, premiered on the streamer in 2023. The show, which follows Ortega’s Wednesday Addams as she attends Nevermore Academy, received a speedy second season renewal.
Ortega joined Tim Burton as an executive producer for the new season. The actress and Burton later worked together on the 2024 sequel to Beetlejuice.
Along with Ortega, Luis Guzmán, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Victor Dorobantu, Steve Buscemi, Joanna Lumley, Christopher Lloyd, Joy Sunday, Hunter Doohan, Fred Armisen, Thandiwe Newton, Billie Piper, Haley Joel Osment and Heather Matarazzo will appear in season 2 of the horror series.
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Buscemi, 67, recently praised Ortega in an exclusive chat with PEOPLE, saying, “Oh, she’s great. She’s just, she’s so sharp and funny and down to earth. And just a wonderful actress, a wonderful scene partner. The best.”
Wednesday season 2, part one premieres Aug. 6 on Netflix.
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