Jenna Ortega is arguably one of Hollywood’s biggest actresses right now, but she almost gave up before making it big.
The 23-year-old actress opened up on the Wednesday, April 9 episode of the “Big Bro with Kid Cudi” podcast about a moment in her career when she nearly walked away from acting altogether.
The turning point came after Ortega wrapped a children’s show and found herself at a crossroads. “I’d gotten off of a children’s show, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn’t know who I was,” she explained.
And starting high school at the same time made the decision feel even more loaded. For a while, leaving Hollywood felt like a real possibility. “It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to,” she admitted, adding that she even discussed the idea with her team for several months.
What changed everything was landing a role in Season 2 of Netflix’s “You” in 2019, playing Ellie Alves, the young neighbor of Joe Goldberg (Pen Badgley). “I went on that set, and I loved it and had the best time,” Ortega said. “I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.'”
From there, her career took off. She got breakout roles in three “Scream” films, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” and ultimately “Wednesday,” the Netflix series that earned her Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG nominations.
“It’s a weird job to be in,” she revealed. But she came out the other side with some clarity. “I feel so much better. I learned so much about what I enjoy and what I don’t enjoy.”
