While Hollywood is pushing to be more inclusive, the 'Wednesday' actress claims many Hollywood bosses can be 'out of touch' because they grew up in 'a very different time.'
- Mar 3, 2023
AceShowbiz - Jenna Ortega feels "a lot of" Hollywood bosses are "out of touch." While admitting she can be her own worst critic, the "Wednesday" star has addressed the challenges of meeting "expectations" of what a Latina actress should look like or the kind of roles she should be taking on.
"It goes back to the 'your own worst critic' thing. Nothing anybody else could say is gonna bother me as much as something I could say," she told New York Magazine's The Cut.
"When it comes to Latina expectations, it's so easy for me to brush those off because the people who are in positions of power right now or who have been in positions of power for so long in the industry, a lot of them are out of touch or just not necessarily familiar because they grew up in a very different time."
"So I think that I personally have so much fun pushing the boundaries and doing all of the things that, you know, the Latina character 'shouldn't' do. We were never the hero of the story or the lead of the story, and I love to be able to push back on that."
There were also expectations for her role as Wednesday Addams in the Netflix hit, particularly when it came to the nostalgia surrounding Christina Ricci's portrayal. She added, "As far as expectations with something like Wednesday, you just have to realize that you can't fight nostalgia."
"All you can do is just lean into it a bit. As long as you've got a few undertones of acknowledging and respecting what's come before you, I think you have more freedom to put your own taste and style in there and still make it fresh and new."
The 20-year-old star is the new ambassador for Adidas and the lifelong soccer fan admitted, while she isn't "necessarily competitive with other people," she is with herself. She explained, "I am so happy to watch people succeed."
"And it's really wonderful when you're able to work on a project and you all can celebrate something together. But if there's anything that's going to put me in a bad mood, it's if I feel like I'm not pushing myself or doing the best I possibly can. And it was the same way when I was younger playing soccer."
