“I’m floating and I’m open for interpretation”: Jenna Ortega and the cruel reality of celebrity
There are some actors who suddenly burst out of the woodwork and onto a rollercoaster of ever-increasing fame and modern Hollywood seems to be currently littered with such stars. Alongside the likes of Jacob Elordi, Austin Butler and Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega certainly fits into this category of contemporary film icons.
Like Butler, Ortega had come through on the Disney Channel, appearing in the lead role of Harley Diaz in Stuck in the Middle, although she had already appeared as young Jane in the comedy-drama Jane the Virgin. Clearly, Ortega was a force to be reckoned with and before she had even turned 20, she had given acclaimed efforts in the films You and The Fallout.
Huge roles were just on the horizon for Ortega, and in 2022, she established herself as a key part of Hollywood’s next wave with a performance in the horror-comedy series Wednesday and put herself forward as a contemporary scream queen with efforts in Scream and X. Suddenly, Ortega found herself at the centre of American entertainment, a young actor with the whole world in her hands.
However, not everyone who is cast into the limelight of fame actually enjoys the attention, and Ortega joins a long list of recently famous actors, such as Paul Mescal and Zendaya, who would prefer to retain a sense of privacy. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Ortega recently explained, “A majority of the last year and a half has felt very far from me, very dissociative and alien and out-of-body.”
She added, “When people mention my name, it’s almost like my name has been taken from me. Now I just feel like I’m floating and… I’m up for interpretation.” Ortega went on to explain that the very conception of celebrity is “absolutely ridiculous” and claimed that anyone who was to welcome it with open arms would like to have something “severely wrong” with them.
Sure enough, there seems to be a trend in young stars in the fact that they seem adamant on insisting that they don’t like fame, a far cry from the Hollywood stars of eras gone by. After all, most actors in the 20th century seemed to crave fame and saw it as part and parcel of being a successful actor.
However, the truth may be that fame no longer has the same appeal because actual talent is no longer a prerequisite for attaining celebrity – meaning that any symmetrical-faced, spray-tanned influencer can find themselves on the same red carpet as a recently Oscar-nominated actor.
In an age where everyone is desperate to be the centre of attention online, to sit back and reject fame and celebrity seems to be the cooler and more cultured choice. However, on the other hand, there’s an inevitability to the reality of being a successful actor, as Ortega undoubtedly is and will likely continue to be, an inescapability of celebrity that one can never seemingly avoided.
While Ortega’s comments on fame paint her in something of a nonchalant light, as though the glare of the camera were a mere annoyance and not a privilege, there’s a truth to her words in their highlighting the ugly allure of fame and celebrity. Even though the future looks bright for the actor with future projects with Taika Waititi, Paul Rudd and Barry Keoghan on the horizon, Ortega will be doing her best to stay out of the spotlight while simultaneously climbing the stairs to the stars.
