While discussing the severity of utilizing social media as a young actor with Elle Fanning, Jenna Ortega broke down in tears in their recent media interview.
The Scream 6 star, 20, and The Girl From Plainville alum, 25, spoke candidly about their experiences navigating Hollywood in the face of success at a young age for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, published on Wednesday, June 7.
Even though Ortega has been acting since she was a little child and has a prominent role in the Scream trilogy, the Netflix actor didn’t notice “a very obvious shift” in her life until Wednesday premiered in November 2022.
Fanning explained how social media “can get toxic,” and the X actress concurred right away. Fanning, like Ortega, has been in the spotlight since she was a little child.
Wednesday actor Ortega went on to explain how social media was the reason why they ended up losing a lot of work opportunities.
“Even after shooting ‘Wednesday,’ when I was auditioning for certain roles, they would come to my team: ‘We like her, but we just don’t know if she has enough of a platform or enough of a name,’” Ortega said. “And social media, what it does to anyone our age, it’s such a comparing game. It almost influences the bandwagon mentality. … It’s very manipulative.”
Fanning agreed and revealed how social media had affected her the same way when she auditioned for roles but did not get the part.
The conversation became emotional for Ortega, who teared up as she discussed the difficulty of being misconstrued online. “The more I’ve been exposed to the world, people prey on that and take advantage of that,” she said. “They see your vulnerability and twist it in a way that you don’t always expect.”
They ended the interview with the Ortega admitting that she hopes she could feel a bit more human sometimes because the industry always ends up taking a lot of your energy.
She said, I still have this really intense urge to be human and honest and authentic. Another thing about this industry is you get in front of a camera, and people want you to be something else — where it’s “Have more energy” or “Could you smile?” and it just feels gross. And I don’t want to feel gross. I would rather people see me cry and do whatever than be something I’m not.
