NEED TO KNOW
Jenna Ortega has revealed that she nearly quit acting before being cast on season 2 of Netflix’s You, which aired in 2019
She told Kid Cudi on his Big Bro podcast that she “had the best time” on set and thought “there’s no way I could let this go”
The 23-year-old now plays the titular character in Wednesday, Netflix’s Addams Family adaptation
Jenna Ortega was thinking about stepping away from acting until she landed the role of Ellie Alves on Netflix‘s You.
The 23-year-old played the teenager in season 2 of the psychological thriller series, which aired in 2019, marking a foray into more mature roles.
Penn Badgley and Jenna Ortega in ‘You’ season 2
Credit: Beth Dubber/Netflix
Before You, Ortega was best known as a child star who played a younger Jane on The CW’s comedy-drama Jane the Virgin and Harley Diaz on Disney Channel‘s comedy Stuck in the Middle.
“When I was a teenager, I’d gotten off a children’s show, and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said on Kid Cudi‘s Big Bro podcast in an episode released Wednesday, April 8. “I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn’t know who I was.”
The actress added, “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 good run’ sort of thing. We had talked about it for a few months with my team. 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.’ “
After playing Ellie, the downstairs neighbor of main character Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) on You, Ortega went on to gain wider recognition for playing the titular character on Wednesday, Netflix’s Addams Family adaptation.
Ortega went on to earn scream queen status following her parts in the slasher movies Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023), but she left the franchise ahead of Scream 7, a day after news broke that her co-star Melissa Barrera had been fired.
In Scream 7, which was released on Feb. 27, their absence was explained by the setting being moved from New York City to the fictional small town of Pine Grove, Ind.
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Recent years have also seen Ortega star in the fantasy comedy-horror Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), a sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice, the thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) and comedy-horror Death of a Unicorn (2025).
Her latest project, comedy-thriller The Gallerist, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and arrived in theaters on Jan. 24, while season 3 of Wednesday is currently in production, with Winona Ryder joining the star-studded cast.
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