Jenna Ortega revealed that she almost quit acting before appearing on Season 2 of You.
“I didn’t know what else to do. I never really thought about anything else, especially lately, just out of curiosity and wanting a different life experience,” the 23-year-old actress said on Wednesday’s episode of the Big Brother with Kid Cudi podcast.
Ortega continued, “But when I was a teenager, I was coming 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 admitted that at that point in her career, “I felt like it was the right time to quit anyway.”
Ortega also said that she was open to leaving Hollywood, as she was just starting high school at the time, and that she discussed her decision “with my team for several months.”
However, things changed in 2019 when Ortega was cast as Ellie Alves, Joe Goldberg’s (Penn Badgley) young neighbor, on Season 2 of You.
“I was on that set and I loved it and had the best time,” she said of her experience on the hit Netflix show. “I thought, ‘Oh, I can’t let this go.'”
“But I think that’s a no-brainer,” Ortega admitted. “There’s so much to this job that no one can prepare you for.”
Ortega broke out on the CW show “Jane the Virgin” and the Disney Channel series “Stuck in the Middle.”
After starring in You, she found further success on screen with three Scream movies and a Beetlejuice sequel.
Ortega will play Wednesday Addams in the Netflix series “Wednesday” starting in 2022, for which she has been nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award.
On Kid Cudi’s podcast, Ortega explained that the busier his career is, the better.
“If I sit still for too long and don’t have a plan or something to look forward to, I feel kind of crazy,” she says. “It’s a strange job.”
The Yes Day actress also just took four months off from work for the first time in years, which she revealed was “very scary” at first.
“I remember everyone saying, ‘Okay, look after yourself,'” she said. “Because they know how much I love this job. They know how much I love being out there and filming.”
Ortega said she struggled with having so much free time during the first few weeks off.
But “now that it’s nearing the end, I feel so needed because I’m almost done,” she said.
“I feel so much better. I’ve learned a lot about what’s fun and what’s not.”
