Jenna Ortega has revealed that while working as a child actress she would go whole days without eating or even having a sip of water.
The 23-year-old has been a working actress for 14 years, first appearing in TV shows such as You, Rob, CSI: NY, and Jane The Virgin, from as young as nine, as well as in films such as Iron Man 3 and Insidious: Chapter 3, both released in 2013.
Perfectionist as a child
She reflected on her early beginnings in a new interview with Esquire, explaining that she was a perfectionist as a child: "I really had it going for me as a child ‘cause I can’t think of one mistake I made. 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.
"I wasn’t asking for a sip of water. I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody."
She then added that perhaps this wasn't the best trait: "Maybe that was my mistake. Not actually looking after myself."
Emotional moment on Iron Man 3 set
In the interview she also reflected on her determination to be perfect while young, revealing that while playing someone with one leg in Iron Man 3, she left the set in tears after sitting on her bent leg all day.
"I had sat on my leg all day at work, and I limped all the way to the car with smiles and tears running down my face. I was just so happy to have been on a movie set. I refused to leave the wheelchair, because if somebody needed me, I wanted to be ready," she recalled.
The star has since appeared in much larger roles, first having a mainstream breakthrough in 2022 with her appearance in the fifth Scream film.
Recent roles and OCD admission
In 2021 she was also cast in the Netflix Tim Burton reboot of Wednesday, which was a huge success when it launched in 2022 and led to Jenna appearing in various other major roles including Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Death of a Unicorn, The Gallerist, and is set to appear in Klara and the Sun.
Jenna has also been open about her obsessive nature and her previous health issues, detailing how they have affected her.
"I have pretty intense OCD," she told the Heart Evening Show while promoting her film Death of a Unicorn. "Repetitive thoughts and counting everything multiple times and having to do the same action over and over."
She added that she sometimes will spend time pacing her stairs because her OCD tells her this will prevent her from being broken into.
"Sometimes my nights consist of just being really exhausted and going up and down the stairs six times because that’s what I think I need to do to make sure no one breaks into my home."
