Jenna Ortega: the self-proclaimed cinephile who only makes shitty movies
In a recent interview, Jenna Ortega described how the euphoric dance scene performed by Denis Lavant in Beau Travail had been a heavy influence on her infamous dance scene in Wednesday.
The actor, who plays Wednesday Addams in the Addams Family spinoff show, skyrocketed in popularity after a scene in which she rigidly dances to The Cramps, later puzzling a talk show host after revealing the niche inspiration behind her performance. Today, Ortega is viewed as one of the most popular actors of her generation, a title that seems well-deserved given her effortless talent and work ethic, but slightly confusing when looking at her filmography.
Ortega first found fame through her breakout role in You, starring alongside Penn Badgley as a mouthy teenager inadvertently trapped in his web of nice-guy manipulation. From this point, she was on everyone’s radar, which only led to increased speculation about her next move and how she might expand on her image as a modern-day scream queen.
However, while some could expect the star of a terrible Netflix show to make some predictable creative choices, there came to be an added layer of intrigue around Ortega’s future projects due to her self-confessed label as a cinephile and many conversations about the type of cinema she adores. The actor described her love for everything from Paris, Texas to Joan of Arc, demonstrating excellent taste in films made all over the globe.
It was for this very reason that her subsequent choices have only been met with confusion and slight disappointment, starring in some of the most god-awful movies being made today and making choices that directly conflict with her thoughtful cinematic taste. Since the success of You, Ortega starred in a truly terrible feature called Miller’s Girl alongside Martin Freeman, telling the story of a forbidden relationship between an English professor and an eager young student (a plot trope that I, for one, am completely sick of).
As well as this, she starred in the A24 flop Death of a Unicorn and expanded on her body of work with Tim Burton, also starring in the Beetlejuice sequel alongside Winona Ryder. But among all of these projects, none of them comes vaguely close to he types of films she loves and publicly professes her love for, making her one of the most conflicting stars working today.
The mismatch between the movies she stars in and the films she loves could perhaps be a result of a poor agent who is signing Ortega up for every project under the sun, regardless of its quality. This tactic is adopted by many emerging actors who are encouraged to work as much as possible, and once they’ve become more established, they can start to be picky about their projects.
But this wouldn’t make sense for someone like Ortega, whose name is already widely known and has established a reputation as a keen film lover. Perhaps her slate of projects is a result of poor creative judgment – she evidently loves cinema, but does this mean she has an eye for potential when reading scripts? Reading a written draft of a project is very different to seeing the final thing on screen, and perhaps she doesn’t yet have an eye for discerning between the good and bad when it’s on the page.
There is no denying that Ortega has an abundance of talent, but when looking at her recent choices, it’s hard to make sense of the huge fandom that she has given the mediocrity of her work. The actor is soon to be working with Taika Waititi and David O Russell, two heavyweight directors who could perhaps shift the trajectory of her current path to stories with more substance, even if it is very disappointing that she is working with such a notoriously disgusting director like Russell. But alas, this is a normalised controversy in a business like Hollywood, with many excusing the predatory behaviour of gross male directors for any opportunity to advance their career.
However, there is no doubt that she has excellent taste, and perhaps her filmography can be explained away by a strange contract, dodgy agent or untrained eye that will one day be able to seek out the types of films she so clearly loves.
