Actress Jenna Ortega revealed she nearly gave up acting before securing her breakthrough role as Ellie Alves on Netflix’s “You,” speaking candidly on Kid Cudi’s “Big Bro” podcast.
“I didn’t know what else I was gonna do,” Ortega said. “I’ve never really considered anything else, more so recently, just out of sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience. But when I was a teenager, I’d gotten off a children’s show, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn’t know who I was.”
Ortega explained that the decision to potentially step away from acting came as she was entering high school. “It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to. We had talked about it for a few months with my team. And then, I think I booked that show ‘You,’ and then I went on that set, and I loved it and had the best time. I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.’”
The actress began her career in children’s shows such as Netflix’s “Richie Rich” and Disney’s “Stuck in the Middle.” In 2019, she joined the cast of “You” Season 2 as Ellie, Joe Goldberg’s downstairs neighbor, played by Penn Badgley.
Ortega’s recent work includes lead roles in films like “X,” “Scream VI,” “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” and “Death of a Unicorn.” She also stars in Netflix’s Emmy-winning adaptation of “The Addams Family,” titled “Wednesday.”
