Jenna Ortega is a force to be reckoned with.
After a run of attention-grabbing performances — from Netflix’s Wednesday to big-screen franchises — she’s become one of the most recognizable young actors working today. But as Ortega recently explained, getting to this point involved a period where she seriously questioned whether she should keep acting at all.
Speaking during an April 8 appearance on the Big Bro With Kid Cudi podcast, the 23-year-old reflected on a turning point early in her career when the path ahead felt uncertain.
Ortega got her start in family-friendly TV, including her time as Harley Diaz on Disney’s Stuck in the Middle from 2016 to 2018, yet she said stepping away from that world left her feeling unsure of what came next.
“I didn’t know what else I was gonna do,” she said when describing her ambitions.
“I’ve never really considered anything else, more so recently, just out of the sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience.”
She described how leaving a children’s series as a teenager meant starting over in some ways, particularly when it came to getting in front of unfamiliar decision-makers.
“When I was a teenager, 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.”
Ortega said that with high school beginning and the sense that one chapter had closed, it felt like a logical moment to consider ending her acting career.
Continuing, she said: “It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to. I was starting high school and [it was a] ‘it was a good run’ sort of thing. We had talked about it for a few months with my team.”
Things shifted when she secured a supporting part on Netflix’s thriller series You in 2019, where she appeared opposite Penn Badgley. Ortega said working on that production reminded her why she wanted to do this in the first place.
She recalled: “And then, I think I booked that show You, and then I went on that set, and I loved it and had the best time. I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go’.”
Since then, Ortega’s résumé has continued to expand, with roles in projects like Scream 5 and 6, Beetlejuice 2, and Wednesday.
She has also been candid about earlier career moments that didn’t go as planned. In an interview last year, she spoke about how one of her first notable film appearances was dramatically reduced in the final edit.
Ortega had been cast in Iron Man 3 alongside Robert Downey Jr., but said her part was cut shortly before the movie’s release in 2013.
“It was one of the first jobs I ever had. They took all my lines out,” she told Entertainment Weekly, adding that her appearance in the film amounted to just ‘one leg’.
Ortega began working in Hollywood at just nine years old, and she’s previously shared concerns about how unusual it can be for kids to grow up inside the entertainment business.
Speaking to The New York Times, she said: “Children aren’t supposed to be working like that,” she said. “They are supposed to be climbing trees and drawing, and going to school. Some of those kids’ parents don’t even take school seriously, so I feel really, really fortunate to have had parents who made sure that I hung out with friends, made sure that I went to public school, and wouldn’t allow me to work on a job unless I had straight A’s and was prioritizing my sleep and my schoolwork.”
She added that the environment can be difficult to navigate at a young age, and noted how her parents’ caution shaped her experience.
“Child acting is strange,” Ortega continued.
“I see why my parents felt so hesitant about it, because you’re putting a child in an adult workplace. I think if I had just stayed growing up in Coachella Valley, I would be a completely different person.”