How Jenna Ortega became Gen Z's ultimate scream queen… from Johnny Depp rumours to ‘toxic' allegations & THAT sex scene

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Scroll down for Jenna Ortega's seven most iconic roles, from a horror reboot to a role she played aged just 12
THE NEXT JEN How Jenna Ortega became Gen Z's ultimate scream queen… from Johnny Depp rumours to 'toxic' allegations & THAT sex scene
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SHOWBIZ writer Ashleigh Rainbird reveals how Wednesday star Jenna Ortega has dealt with her meteoric rise to superstardom.
Last year, Jenna Ortega said she was sick of the sight of her own face.
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Ashleigh Rainbird reveals how Wednesday star Jenna Ortega has dealt with her meteoric rise to superstardom
Credit: getty
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Jenna as Wednesday Addams in Netflix hit Wednesday
Credit: wednesday
In 2024 alone, she starred in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, fronted campaigns for Dior Beauty and Neutrogena, and joined singer Sabrina Carpenter in her music video for summer's smash hit Taste.
There was also that 'disturbing' viral sex scene alongside 53-year-old Martin Freeman in thriller Miller's Girl.
'I got sick of myself,' she told Variety magazine. 'My face was everywhere.'
Now, however, Jenna is back, with the highly anticipated second series of Wednesday hitting Netflix on August 6 – and that face is set to become more ubiquitous than ever.
A former child star, she was catapulted into the A list when Wednesday – viewed 252 million times and counting – launched in 2022.
And by her own refreshingly candid admission, that rapid rise to the top was overwhelming.
'To be quite frank, after the show and trying to figure everything out, I was an unhappy person,' she told Harper's Bazaar in May.
'After the pressure, the attention – as somebody who's quite introverted, that was so intense and so scary.'
'Having been on the wrong side of the rumour mill was eye-opening'
The eight-month shoot in Romania had been challenging, with Jenna revealing: 'I was alone. Never had any hot water. The boilers in two of my apartments were broken, so I always took cold showers.'
To make matters worse, her original request to have a producer credit was rejected, and she alluded to tensions behind the scenes, describing her own behaviour as 'almost unprofessional', changing scripts without telling the writers if she felt aspects 'did not make sense for her character at all.'
Most controversial sex scenes after THAT Jenna Ortega & Martin Freeman romp… including stars who 'had real sex on film'
The comments drew her first taste of controversy, coming at a delicate time in the industry when the US writers' strike was in full swing.
The backlash was swift, with writers on social media slamming her behaviour as 'entitled' and 'toxic'.
'I feel like being a bully is very popular right now,' she said. 'Having been on the wrong side of the rumour mill was incredibly eye-opening.'
Fortunately, Jenna, 22, is not one to put up with being bullied.
Forthright and tenacious, she has always shown herself to be determined, from convincing her parents to allow her to become an actress, to her recent struggles with OCD that have seen her having to complete the same action many times and count things over and over in her head.
Growing up in La Quinta, California, with her five siblings and parents of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, Jenna knew she wanted to become an actress at just six years old, after being inspired by Dakota Fanning in the 2004 Denzel Washington movie Man On Fire.
Her mum Natalie, an ER nurse, has revealed that, only weeks earlier, Jenna had designs on becoming the first female US president, and before that had her sights set on going into space.
So, initially, Natalie and Jenna's dad Edward, a sheriff, dismissed it as just another phase.
Once they realised she was serious, it took three years to convince them that acting was a good idea.
The kids grew up catching scorpions and even a rattlesnake to keep as pets.
Yet her parents feared worse dangers lurked in Hollywood.
'Mom wasn't sure about putting me in this industry that she had heard such terrible things about,' Jenna said.
But she pestered relentlessly.
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Jenna with Sabrina Carpenter in the singer's Taste video
Credit: instagram
In 2010, Natalie posted a video recording of her then-seven-year-old daughter performing a monologue to Facebook 'as a joke', Jenna insists, and a casting agent got in touch.
Reluctantly, Natalie relented because, as Jenna put it: 'She thought I might hold it against her for the rest of my life!'
By the time she was nine, she had appeared in a Colgate advert, at 12 she had a recurring role as the young Jane in Netflix show Jane The Virgin and, aged 13, she had a main role in Disney comedy series Stuck In The Middle.
Though it meant constantly travelling between her home and LA for castings and filming, she's said her mum 'watched over me like a hawk', and that: 'I see why my parents felt so hesitant about it, because you're putting a child in an adult workplace. Children aren't supposed to be working like that. They are supposed to be climbing trees and drawing and going to school.'
'Former child stars have a jaded way about us'
Only allowed to take roles if she achieved straight-A grades, got plenty of sleep and socialised with school friends, Jenna remained in school to maintain a sense of normality.
She was still just 17 when she filmed Netflix's serial killer drama You opposite Penn Badgley.
But it was winning the role of Tara Carpenter in 2022's Scream that would set her on course to become Gen Z's scream queen, with roles in slasher film X and comedy horror American Carnage.
Her horror credentials appealed to gothic film director Tim Burton, who was casting a new spin-off of The Addams Family.
She jumped on a Zoom call with him while filming X in New Zealand, still drenched in stage blood and with a prosthetic bullet hole in her head, fittingly.
Tim was blown away, and cast her as his title character Wednesday within five minutes, saying she had the character 'in her soul'.
After wrapping that tough first season, Jenna intended to take time off and signed up to spend a summer working on a farm in Iceland.
But when Tim presented her with the script for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, released last year, she shelved her plans.
While filming the 2024 movie, she grew close to co-star and former fellow child star Winona Ryder.
Likewise, she is also friends with Natalie Portman, after they met while filming The Gallerist.
She likens their unique shared experiences to having a 'secret little language' together, and says she and Winona can almost 'read each other's minds'.
Jenna credits the pair as having helped her navigate the perils of fame.
She told Harper's Bazaar: 'They've seen it all, and, honestly, during a much darker time in Hollywood.
'We've all got this jaded way about us that I don't think we'd have if we hadn't started so young and had so many brutal realisations and experiences. But they turned out all right.'
They surely had plenty of advice when gossip swirled that she was secretly dating 62-year-old actor Johnny Depp (Winona's ex-boyfriend from the '90s).
The pair have actually never met, but even her castmates on her recent film Death Of A Unicorn grilled her about it.
'I was on set with Richard E Grant and he came up to me and said: 'Oh, so you and Johnny?'' she told Buzzfeed.
'I laughed, because I don't know that person.'
Johnny, too, released a statement saying he had 'no personal or professional relationship with Ms Ortega whatsoever', and called the claims 'malicious'.
'I don't plan on speaking about my love life publicly, because that's mine'
Last year, Jenna told Vanity Fair that she would always seek to keep her private life private.
'I don't plan on speaking about my love life publicly, because that's mine,' she said.
'When you know too much about someone's personal life, then you watch films and you can only see them – there's nothing worse.'
In 2018, she was linked to fellow Disney star Asher Angel, after the pair dressed as another famous couple, Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson, for Halloween.
She never confirmed their relationship, but in 2023, Jenna told Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast: 'I was in a relationship for a couple of years, but I stopped it when things got too hectic.
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With her parents Edward and Natalie
Credit: Instagram
'And it had nothing to do with them. . . I just couldn't manage all the things.'
Her career is going from strength to strength, and there is certainly plenty to manage.
She plans to remake Single White Female with actress Taylor Russell, who previously dated Harry Styles.
The fact that neither of them are 'white' has already drawn 'stupid comments', prompting Jenna to quip the pair might 'just call it Single Female'.
The actress is proud of her heritage, and is intent on using her platform for good, as per her mum's insistence.
She's spoken out against LA's immigration raids, and wants to be a positive role model for young Puerto Rican girls, which undoubtedly she already is.
She has spent a decade working on her own movie script, has designs on being a recording artist, too, and is likely to break more Netflix streaming records when the second series of Wednesday is released in just over a week.
Jenna really will have to just get used to seeing her face everywhere for the forseeable future.
Jenna Ortega's seven most iconic roles
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Jenna played eight-year-old Jane Villanueva in Netflix comedy series Jane the Virgin
Jane The Virgin (2014)
Jenna played the eight-year-old Jane Villanueva in the Netflix comedy series, appearing in 30 episodes from the age of 12. The role obviously struck a nerve with the actress, who later said: 'I really miss Jane!'
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Jenna played Harley, the fourth of seven siblings in Disney series Stuck In The Middle
Credit: getty
Stuck In The Middle (2016)
Though she has five siblings of her own, in TV land Jenna played Harley, the fourth of seven siblings in this Disney series. She said: 'I love the cast, the crew was amazing – everyone is so talented.'
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Ortega in creepy Netflix thriller You
Credit: you
You (2019)
In the second season of this creepy Netflix thriller, Jenna played 15-year-old Ellie, Joe Goldberg's new neighbour with a troubled background. She didn't return for any subsequent seasons, sadly.
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Jenna as Tara Carpenter in Scream
Scream (2022)
A legacy sequel to the original film, released 25 years later, starred Jenna as high-schooler Tara Carpenter, who somehow manages to survive the ghostface killer – and the subsequent franchise films.
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Wednesday is perhaps Jenna's most iconic role to date
Credit: wednesday
Wednesday (2022)
With her gothy outfits, jet-black fringe and perfected glower, it feels like Jenna was born to play this role. Season one saw her break the internet with her macabre dancing, now known as the 'Wednesday dance'.
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Jenna as Astrid and Winona Ryder as Lydia in Beatlejuice Beatlejuice
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
The much-longed-for sequel gave Jenna the chance to play Astrid, the daughter of Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder). She later admitted she was scared of the original, but working on the new one was 'unbelievable'.
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Jenna starred in dark comedy Death Of A Unicorn, alongside Paul Rudd and Will Poulter
Death Of A Unicorn (2025)
'There's a good chance I won't get to work with unicorns again, so when you get the opportunity you do have to take it!' said Jenna of her role in this dark comedy, also starring Paul Rudd, Richard E Grant and Will Poulter.