Jenna Ortega on WEDNEDSAY, Being a Child Actor and What’s Next for HARPER’S BAZAAR Magazine

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In HRPER’S BAZAAR’s Summer 2025 Discovery issue, cover star Jenna Ortega opens up about life beyond Wednesday Addams, how she almost said no to the role and her shock over her overnight megafame: “I was so stunned that I didn’t really process it. I still haven’t.”

In a candid and introspective interview with Carina Chocano, Ortega reflects on the pressures of growing up in the public eye, revealing how acting became a refuge during her childhood. “My work felt like the safe place,” she says. “When I wasn’t on set, I had a really, really hard time.”

Now, she’s found solidarity with women like Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder, and Natasha Lyonne—who survived the treacherous transition from child star to A-list actress. “It’s been so beneficial and so cozy,” she says. “They’ve seen it all, and, honestly, during a much darker time in Hollywood. We’ve all got this jaded way about us that I don’t think we’d have if we hadn’t started so young and had so many brutal realizations and experiences.” She pauses, then deadpans, “But they turned out all right.”

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On anxiety, childhood, and finding refuge in acting: “I was always very existential as a kid,” says Ortega. “The world was always ending. I was worrying about things way earlier than I needed to.” Disappearing into characters offered an escape from the pressure she put on herself. “My work felt like the safe place. When I wasn’t on set, I had a really, really hard time.” She remembers her teen years being “full of tension and fear.” She was terrified of messing up. When she sees old videos of the happy, bubbly kid she was on TV, “I can see clearly that something is wrong, because she doesn’t want to say or do the wrong thing.”

On how social media disconnects us from real interaction—and the irony of Wednesday going mainstream: “We’re incredibly desensitized and disconnected from real interaction,” Ortega says. “I mean, God, if you could speak to everybody like Wednesday—just say what you truly mean—it would be amazing!” In real life, most people try not to upset other people. Nobody wants to let anyone down. But Wednesday isn’t burdened by any of that. “She doesn’t care,” Ortega says. “It’s pretty funny, when you think about it. She’s an outsider, but now she’s on these mugs, cereal boxes, and T-shirts. You’re just thinking, Oh, man, she would hate this!”

On almost saying no to Wednesday—and falling for the character anyway: “I was getting to this point in my career where I was doing movies and getting in the rooms,” she says. She knew that starring in a show would prevent her from taking on more films. “So I kept telling everyone no. I almost didn’t want to hear what Tim [Burton] had to say, and really like it, and feel like I needed to do it—which is kind of what happened.”

Ortega was in New Zealand shooting X when she met with Burton over Zoom. She was wearing a prosthetic—her character’s head had just been blown off—but Burton didn’t even acknowledge it. One of the scenes she did for him involved catching Thing spying on her and threatening to lock him in a drawer forever. She’d been up for 24 hours and was supposed to go to sleep, but instead she went into her bathroom and filmed a second take. “I didn’t want Tim to have that be his last impression of me,” she says. “The next day, I was killing time in my hotel room and I found myself thinking about her—like, maybe she moves like this. And then I realized, Oh, man, I think I’m stuck, because I really love this girl.”

On season 2 of Wednesday: “Season 2 is bigger, bolder, gorier, and a bit darker,” she says. “It’s sillier in the best way possible.”

On how Wednesday shaped her style—and her image: There are ways in which Wednesday has felt like a double-edged sword for Ortega. The role rubbed off on her in good ways. “I definitely feel like I have a bit more Gothic taste than I did when I was a teenager,” she says. “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.”

On staying true to herself and her audience: “I’m very grateful for my audience, ” Ortega says. “And I want to be able to give back to them. But I also want to do things that are creatively fulfilling to me. So it’s finding that balance of doing movies that they might be interested in and then doing movies that I’m interested in.” Right now, she’s looking forward to roles that are “older and bolder and different,” she says. “And then I want to be able to line up all of my girls and see something different in all of them.”

Story by Carina Chocano
Photographs by Willy Vanderperre
Styling by Paul Sinclaire

Jenna Ortega Covers the HARPER’S BAZAAR Summer 2025 Discovery Issue on Newsstands June 3.

[Photo Credit: Willy Vanderperre for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine]

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