‘The Interview’: Jenna Ortega Is Still Recovering From Child Stardom

If you have a tween daughter, as I do, you know that Jenna Ortega is a big deal. In 2022, Ortega starred as the title character in Netflix’s “Addams Family” reboot, “Wednesday,” and quickly became beloved by viewers for her character’s snarky, dark and brutally honest personality. The show was a hit, and suddenly Wednesday — and by extension Ortega — were everywhere: on merch, on the streets for Halloween and all over the internet doing her meme-able dance moves. It was the kind of star-making, culture-saturating role that is life-changing for a young actor. It was also, as Ortega told me over the course of our two conversations, completely disorienting to become so famous so fast.

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Ortega didn’t appear out of nowhere. She started as a child actor on the Disney Channel, played the young version of Jane in the CW series “Jane the Virgin” and later starred in the “Scream” and “X” horror franchises. Now she is 21. Her next big role is in the new movie “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, which opens nationwide on Sept. 6. (Burton also directed several episodes of “Wednesday.”) Ortega plays the daughter of Winona Ryder’s character, and she told me that they bonded over each having found enormous success in Hollywood at a young age.

When we spoke — I caught her in Ireland, where she was filming the second season of “Wednesday” — I found Ortega to be a thoughtful and curious person who, like many young people, is still finding out who she is. “I’m just navigating,” she says of this stage of her life. “I’m on my own little personal expedition.” Only she is doing it under the glare of a massive spotlight.

When did you first see the original “Beetlejuice”? Honestly, I can’t really put a date on it. I feel like I had to have seen it maybe when I was 8 or 9. I was terrified of everything when I was younger. I actually had a recurring nightmare about Beetlejuice. I saw a really terrible Halloween costume before I really knew what the movie was, and I think that the mold and smearing, bleeding green and black Party City makeup gave me a scare. I just remember that image, and then I watched the movie later, and I thought, Oh, man, this is what the guy was dressed as. This is just as scary.

What were your nightmares about Beetlejuice? I shared a room my entire life growing up. I was the bottom bunk on a bunk bed, and I had a dream that Beetlejuice would come down and swing around the banister to my bunk wearing a Superman cape, and he would offer me grape juice and say, “Got any grape?”