Jenna Ortega, star of the Netflix series Wednesday, has said there should be less “workhorse expectation” on child actors. The 24-year-old, who began acting professionally at the age of nine, said she would not start another child at the same age.
Reflecting on Early Roles
Asked about her first lead role as Harley Diaz in the Disney Channel sitcom Stuck In The Middle, which she took on aged 12, Ortega told Vogue: “I wanted to do it so desperately, I don’t think I would start someone that young.”
She said she thought there should be “less of a workhorse expectation put on these kids”, and added that the industry is a “very susceptible environment for things to get confused”, praising her mother for protecting her.
Fame and Future Plans
Ortega said the wider fame Wednesday brought her in 2022 had left her disorientated, and said there was “no one really showing you the ropes”.
The US actor, who recently appeared in Taika Waititi’s Klara And The Sun, and is set to star in and produce Nasty which will be released next year, said she also wanted to try theatre in the future. She said: “I want to be in environments that are stimulating and productive, but also just telling stories that I would want to watch. You get to be immersed in a different way.”
A Dream Stage Role
Asked what her dream stage role would be, she said she would want to play a minor character in Sam Shepard’s 1978 rural drama, Buried Child, who is a young woman who taunts her boyfriend’s disabled uncle with his own prosthetic leg.
She added: “I just thought it was kind of an insane thing for her to do. It would be nice to just do this one scene, I don’t need to be at the forefront of everything.”
