Jenna Ortega got an early start in Hollywood and admits growing up on sets makes for an unorthodox childhood.
“Child acting is strange. I see why my parents felt so hesitant about it, because you’re putting a child in an adult workplace,” she told The New York Times.
She continued, “I think if I had just stayed growing up in Coachella Valley, I would be a completely different person. I wouldn’t speak the way that I do or approach interactions the way that I do. It’s completely changed my way of thinking and going about life, and when I speak to other child actors, I can pick them out instantly because we all have that — it’s just very specific, like some secret little language or something that we all share. Children aren’t supposed to be working like that. They are supposed to be climbing trees and drawing and going to school.”
Ortega was born and raised in California’s Coachella Valley, to an emergency room nurse mother and sheriff father, the middle of six children.
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The actress said she had a “pretty cool childhood” with her parents and siblings, and was the extroverted one who was interested in acting.
Her mom would drive her to auditions where she “didn’t know anything about Hollywood.”
“I didn’t know anyone, and I wanted to be able to do things at my own pace and in my own style, but you didn’t know if people were saying things to help you or to hurt you.”
She recalled the experience could often be overwhelming.
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“When I first started auditioning, we’d spend hours in these casting offices, and we met so many strange and intense personalities. It could be stage parents, it could be producers that really made me fearful of other people for a while, and I think that’s when I started to become more introverted,” the “Scream” star said. “It was such a joy to be able to get back in the car at the end of the day and do my homework, because I was still going to public school at the time, and listen to my mom talk and catch up with my siblings at home.”
When asked about the controversial docuseries, “Quiet on Set” that debuted earlier this year and detailed abuse allegations primarily against adults who had worked on Nickelodeon shows with children, Ortega said she hadn’t watched it, but her mother had.
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“She watched over me like a hawk, so I think for her, it was more empathizing and wishing she somehow could have done something to help. She just called me saying she was so grateful that things were OK and that she was there to witness everything,” Ortega said.
The 21-year-old, who received her first credited roles at age 10, says, “There’s times that I regret it; there’s times that my parents regret it” when it comes to beginning her career so early.
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But at the same time, she says, “Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything. I don’t believe in that because if anything, I’m incredibly grateful for the lessons that it did teach me. I love that when I go on a set now, I’m incredibly knowledgeable. I know what the camera verbiage means. I know what a grip’s job is. I know what a gaffer’s job is. I can get along with the D.P. I can go through shot lists. I understand it all.
“I know what’s going on around me; therefore, I feel incredibly safe and comfortable and excited to go to work every day because it’s familiar to me.”
She also looks to the actresses who came before her, like her “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” co-star Winona Ryder.
“I do have a weird habit of connecting with older-generation actresses almost instantly, and I think it’s because there’s a certain level of empathy and instant want for protection and to be able to guide younger people. I’ve been really, really lucky to work with incredible actresses who definitely had a harder upbringing. They’ve been teachers. They’ve been mentors, and that has definitely helped a lot.”
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