Jenna Ortega is opening up in regards to the stereotypes she’s confronted in Hollywood as a toddler star to position as a “schoolgirl” in Wednesday.
Throughout a (coincidentally) Wednesday profile with Harper’s Bazaar, the Wednesday star mentioned “it’s been so helpful and so cozy” for her to type friendships with fellow former baby actors Winona Ryder, Natasha Lyonne and Natalie Portman. The latter actor additionally informed the outlet that due to her brief peak, “folks will usually deal with you want a toddler perpetually,” a sentiment Ortega agreed with.
“I relate to that so immensely, and it’s all the time been actually annoying since you simply don’t really feel such as you’re being taken severely,” she mentioned. “It’s like the way you’re dressed within the schoolgirl costume. … There’s simply one thing about it that’s very patronizing. Additionally, if you’re brief, individuals are already bodily wanting down on you.”
Earlier than she obtained the chance to painting Wednesday Addams in Tim Burton’s Netflix sequence, Ortega mentioned, “I’ve all the time been into darkish issues or been fascinated by them, however I used to be a Disney child, and the entire thing is being bubbly and type and overly candy.”
Now, at 22, the Emmy nominee is grappling with the notion of portraying a “schoolgirl” as she continues her ascent into maturity. She defined, “I’m doing a present I’m going to be doing for years the place I play a schoolgirl,” including, “However I’m additionally a younger girl.”
Ortega famous that with Wednesday, regardless of her character being “an outcast and an outsider — she’s additionally a pop-culture icon,” which has led her to “turn out to be a pop actor — if that is smart. And that’s one thing I by no means noticed for myself.”
To fight being pigeonholed into the horror style, she’s been “discovering that steadiness of doing films that they is perhaps excited by after which doing films that I’m excited by” and is subsequent searching for roles which are “older and bolder and totally different.”
Because the star and now an upcoming producer for season two of Wednesday, Ortega needs to proceed so as to add extra numerous credit to her leisure résumé. She just lately mentioned she needs to direct “a script that I’ve identified that I used to be going to make for nearly 10 years.”