Jenna Ortega Almost Quit Acting Before Landing Her Role on ‘You’

Jenna Ortega is one of the most recognizable celebrities of our time, known for her iconic roles in Wednesday, Scream, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. However, there was a time when she almost quit acting.

After appearing on Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle from 2016 until 2018, she considered giving up her career. But she changed her mind after booking the role as Ellie on season two of Netflix’s You.

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On the April 8 episode of Kid Cudi’s Big Bro podcast, she explained, “I didn’t know what else I was gonna do. I’ve never really considered anything else—more-so recently, just out of sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience. But when I was a teenager, I’d gotten off 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 continued, “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.’”

Ortega, who is now 23, started acting professionally when she was only nine. She appeared as a younger version of Jane on Jane the Virgin. She went on to win several awards, including the Kid’s Choice Award for Favorite Female TV Star, the MTV Movie & TV Award for Most Frightened Performance, and the People’s Choice Award for the Drama Movie Star of the Year. She also made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2024.