20 things you probably didn’t know about Jenna Ortega

Ortega was inspired to act at 6 when she watched the 2004 action thriller “Man on Fire” starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning.

Fanning played Lupita Ramos, the young girl whom former CIA agent John W. Creasy (Washington) is hired to protect. 

As she told the “Tamron Hall Show” in 2021, Ortega wanted to become “the Puerto Rican version of her.” 

During an interview with the film social media platform Letterboxd in September, Ortega shared her four favorite films and all of them were made before she was born.

Ortega picked a 1995 French thriller called “La Haine,” Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar-winning 1975 movie “Barry Lyndon,” a silent movie from 1928 called “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” and a neo-western film from 1984 called “Paris, Texas.”

Ortega said she was particularly taken with “The Passion of Joan of Arc.”

“I feel like a dream character for me would be Joan of Arc,” she said.

Ortega told Elle in 2023 that she had a huge crush on former US President Barack Obama when she was younger.

Ortega said she told her mom she wanted to become the first female president due to her crush on Obama.

“I had phases where I clung to something and then made it my entire personality,” Ortega said. “To this day, I’m still obsessed with Obama.”

During her appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2022, Ortega said she accidentally starred in three McDonald’s commercials in one year because the casting directors were unaware of her previous commercials when they hired her.

“I was accidentally McDonald’s girl for a year,” Ortega said. 

She went on to say that each time, she was cast as a child holding an apple in the commercials, much to her disappointment.

“It was like the most one of the most disappointing experiences of my life,” Ortega said. “Every time I see an apple, I’m just infuriated. I have, like, rage.”

After starring in strange projects like “Wednesday” and horror films like “X,” Ortega seems perfectly comfortable volunteering some unusual information about herself. 

During an interview with Wired, for example, Ortega revealed she conducted play autopsies on animals as a kid. 

“I used to perform autopsies on little animals when I was younger, like little lizards that I found dead in our backyard,” she told the publication. 

One of Wednesday’s key skills in the hit Netflix series is that she is an adept cello player. 

Ortega told Wired that she had to learn it for the role.

“I started working on the cello about two months before we started shooting,” Ortega said. “I probably couldn’t play too well now just because I’ve been away from home so much working, and it is something that I want to continue to pursue.”

She continued: “I have immense respect for anybody who plays the cello. I think it’s such a delightful instrument.”

Ortega is an apt choice to play Wednesday Addams for many reasons, including her morbid sense of humor.

During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in November 2022, Jenna discussed her twisted humor on the “Wednesday” set, including jokes exchanged with Christina Ricci. 

“Socially I can be kind of hard to communicate with at times, and sometimes I would say something as a joke, and I think I have a very dark sense of humor, and she would go, ‘Oh, that’s dark,'” Ortega said.

Starring in “Wednesday” helped Ortega get a role in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” because Tim Burton directed both.

Ortega said on an episode of “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” in August that Burton approached her about starring in the film a few days before “Wednesday” season one premiered in November 2022. In another interview with BuzzFeed in August, she said it was a few days after “Wednesday” season one premiered.

In both interviews, Burton asked Ortega to meet up to talk about ideas for “Wednesday” season two but when she arrived, he gave her the script to “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”

“He just placed the script of “Beetlejuice” in my journal and he didn’t tell anyone,” Ortega told Fallon of the meeting with Burton. “He just said, ‘There’s no pressure, Jenna, but I think there’s a part for you. But, again, if you don’t want to do it, you know, don’t.’ And I just said, ‘Okay. Thanks, Tim.'”

In both interviews, Ortega said that she drove down the road, pulled over to read the script, and then knew immediately that she wanted to star in the film.

“I called my team, and I said, ‘I can’t tell you what I’m agreeing to, but I am agreeing to it,'” Ortega told Fallon. 

Maybe it’s because Ortega grew up with five siblings, but the actor usually prefers to listen to something or have something playing in the background, she told New York Magazine’s The Strategist in March 2022. 

Because of that, Ortega always carries around a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones, which tech critics generally agree are some of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. 

“I wear these on set,” she said. “I wear them going to work, leaving work, going for walks. Even feeling the headphones on my chest is comforting. People call me a perpetual headphone head. I love these, because I can control them from the side without pulling out my phone.”

“I’ve also been getting into a lot more film scores lately, and these are so grand and elegant,” she continued. “They’re noise-canceling, so the sound quality is better for complicated pieces. I can pick up on different things I wouldn’t if my phone was just playing the music on the counter.”

Ortega is a self-described “Stranger Things” nerd. During an interview with the blog Talk Nerdy With Us in 2016, the actor acknowledged she pays close attention to fan theories about the show.

“I nerd out about ‘Stranger Things!'” Ortega said. “I follow everyone’s theories about the show, and I cannot get enough of it.”

Ortega landed her first-ever fashion campaign, for American Eagle, in 2021. She promoted the apparel brand alongside Addison Rae, “Outers Banks” actors Chase Stokes and Madison Bailey, and “Strangers Things” actor Caleb McLaughlin.

“The clothes are very soft and comfortable, so I felt more relaxed than I usually do at photoshoots,” Ortega told Nylon in 2021 about American Eagle. “It’s also rare I get to work with people my age, so reconnecting with my old friend Caleb and meeting the others was pretty cool for me.”

When it comes to finding fashion inspiration in general, Ortega keeps it simple. 

“I just try to pay attention to what I feel my best in,” the actor added. “As long as I feel good, I think that’s all that matters.”