Jenna Ortega thought “Wednesday” was going to end her career.
While talking to Esquire in an interview published Tuesday, Ortega broke down being cast in “Wednesday” as the titular character. She said while she knew it was a big break for her, she also thought was going to be the end of her career. She believed surely taking on the iconic character would mark the end of acting for her.
“I thought my career was going to be over after that,” Ortega said. “I panicked. I had no idea. I was so confused. And then they started talking about this show and this big release that they were doing. And when we were shooting in Romania, it felt like this small little thing, which maybe was naive because Tim Burton was involved, but the cast and I used to laugh about it like, ‘Wow, this is an insane shoot for it to really not be acknowledged.’”
She added: “I can’t stand to watch myself. I saw part of the first episode, had a mental breakdown, called my friend Matt. I was like, it’s up. Like, okay, here we go.”
Safe to say, she couldn’t have been more wrong. She mentioned that Wednesday was now there character she gets recognized most for even mentioning that one time a woman and her daughter made a crazy U-turn just so say “Hi!” to the actress.
Elsewhere in the interview Ortega reflected on her early days of child stardom. She made it clear that early on in her career she tried to step on as few toes as possible. She didn’t want people going out of their way for her. That went so far that she didn’t even ask for water to drink while working.
“As a child, I was so grateful and so excited to be there that my game face was on,” Ortega said. “I wasn’t asking for a sip of water. I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody. Maybe that was my mistake was like not actually looking after myself.”
The wait for “Wednesday” Season 3 will still be some time. It likely won’t air on Netflix until 2027.
You can watch Ortega’s full interview in the video above.
