Jenna Ortega found superstardom thanks to the Netflix series Wednesday. In a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actress is opening up about how her life changed after the hit show.
“To be quite frank, after the show and trying to figure everything out, I was an unhappy person,” Ortega said. “After the pressure, the attention — as somebody who’s quite introverted, that was so intense and so scary.”
Ortega said she felt “incredibly misunderstood” at the height of her fame.
“I feel like being a bully is very popular right now,” Ortega said. “Having been on the wrong side of the rumor mill was incredibly eye-opening.”
Ortega also described several positives to her starring role of Wednesday Addams.
“I definitely feel like I have a bit more Gothic taste than I did when I was a teenager. I’ve always been into dark things or been fascinated by them, but I was a Disney kid, and the whole thing is being bubbly and kind and overly sweet,” Ortega said.
But with some positives also came a few negatives.
“I’m doing a show I’m going to be doing for years where I play a schoolgirl. But I’m also a young woman,” Ortega said. “It’s like how you’re dressed in the schoolgirl costume. There’s just something about it that’s very patronizing. Also, when you’re short, people are already physically looking down on you.”
All of this being said, Ortega says she is very grateful for the fans she’s acquired through Wednesday.
“I want to be able to give back to them. But I also want to do things that are creatively fulfilling to me,” Ortega said. “So it’s finding that balance of doing movies that they might be interested in and then doing movies that I’m interested in.”
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