Jenna Ortega is trying to become more comfortable declining fan requests after years of feeling responsible for how strangers experience meeting her. She traces that pressure to advice she received during Disney Channel media training.
The 24-year-old Wednesday actress discussed the subject with Josh Horowitz on the October 22 episode of his Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Horowitz asked whether she gives herself permission to say no when people approach her.
She played Harley Diaz on Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle from 2016 to 2018 and voiced Princess Isabel in Elena of Avalor. Her earlier television work included Jane the Virgin.
Disney Trainers Told Her a Fan Might Meet Her Only Once
“Every time someone meets you, it’s probably the only time they’re ever going to interact with you,” Ortega recalled being told, according to TheWrap.
The trainers described those meetings as special moments in fans’ lives and urged the young performers to keep that in mind. Looking back at the instruction, Ortega added a dry joke: “No pressure!” “That has never left me,” she said.
She Weighs Photo Requests Against Her Own Comfort and Safety
Ortega gave the example of being approached by an unfamiliar adult man who wants a photograph. If the situation feels unsafe, or she simply does not want to stop, she is trying to allow herself to decline.
She expressed particular enthusiasm for meeting children. Other encounters vary: some fans are kind, while others can be embarrassing, aggressive or mean, as Entertainment Weekly reported. She said it can be difficult to judge the balance between those experiences.
In a separate Esquire interview, she recalled how quickly recognition changed after Wednesday premiered. While she was walking with her nephew, a woman maneuvered her car to approach Ortega for a photograph with her daughter. Ortega said the series had been out for only a day or two.
Ortega Previously Recalled Going Without Food or Water on Set
In that August 11 How I Got Here video, Ortega was asked about a rookie mistake she had made on her first set. She initially said she had been so grateful and excited to work that she could not think of one.
“I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody,” she said. Ortega reconsidered her answer, suggesting that failing to look after herself may have been the mistake.
Her Latest Film Casts Her as an Artificial Companion
Ortega’s conversation with Horowitz accompanied the release of Klara and the Sun, directed by Taika Waititi and adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel. The film is now in theaters.
After her Disney roles, Ortega appeared in the second season of You and the horror films X and Scream. She also played Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia, in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
During the podcast, she discussed possibly taking a television break after Wednesday. She described wanting room for new work after spending much of her childhood moving between shows.
In Klara and the Sun, Ortega plays an artificial companion who forms a bond with a teenager named Josie, played by Mia Tharia. Amy Adams plays Josie’s mother, according to Sony Pictures.