Who hasn’t seen or heard about the blockbuster Netflix series Wednesday? We all have. One actress in particular who has stood out from all the fame is Jenna Ortega. People cannot seem to stop talking about her and many of us cannot stop obsessing over her. Well, it’s all for the right reasons. The 20-year-old actress has left several pioneers behind with her immaculate backing skills. However, her journey was not all rainbows and roses. She had it rough, simply because of a lack of representation. To share some horrifying stats, it was reported that only 6.2% of the roles in movies in 2017 were played by Latino actors and actresses. We now have some talented actresses from the ethnicity like Stephanie Beatriz, Sophia Vergara, and of course, Ortega.
Jenna Ortega opens up about her initial struggle. She says, “I think it’s pretty special for me just because growing up, I didn’t really have a lot of representation on screen. I always got really excited when I got those jobs that were open ethnicity or maybe initially meant for a Caucasian actor… I do want to open the doors for as many Latin people as possible, just because we’re a beautiful community and we should be celebrated. The Latin community only take up three percent of all representation shown across television and film media.”
Jenna Ortega talks about her journey
She was born in California to Mexican and Puerto Rican parents. She says, “Being Latina has always been really, really lovely for me… it’s something that I’m very proud of.” Ortega further opens up about the lack of representation. She recalls one instance where she asked her mom to gift her hair dye so she could look like Cinderella. Ortega says, “For my fifth birthday, I actually asked my mom for a box of blonde hair dye, because I wanted to dye my hair blonde so that I could look like Cinderella. If you don’t have someone that you can relate to… it can be very discouraging.”
The Wednesday star also says, “One of the perks of my career is definitely the platform I’ve been given. Something I’ve always said from the beginning of my career is that I’m going to use my platform, no matter how big or small, for good. ” She has all the plans to use her voice for the Latino community. She continues, “Take someone like Wednesday, who has such a large platform — I think it’s really important for not only everyone to see it, but also for girls out there like me who just want to be seen.” Moreover, she kickstarted her career at just nine and by 12 she was in the leading role in Disney’s TV series Stuck in the Middle. And now, people are in awe of her acting skills. She will now be seen in Scream 6 alongside Courtney Cox, and more.
Jenna Ortega talks about ‘Wednesday’
Ortega says, “You want to do something different. You don’t want to be ripping off anybody else’s performance. We’ve never spent so much time with Wednesday on screen before, there has to be more dimension in order to push that story forward. Something that I appreciate about horror is that it’s kind of keeping theaters alive. I feel like people really go out to the theaters nowadays for superhero films or horror films.”
She continues, “You’re just giving people a good time. It’s adrenaline, it’s a roller coaster. I feel like horror is a large, just this conglomerate of genres in terms of, you have your horror and your action and then there’s comedy and then there’s drama and then there’s romance. I think that horror films are kind of everything at once, and that’s a really wonderful experience as an actor.”
