The modern horror classic Jenna Ortega was desperate to be cast in: “I didn’t understand it”
Jenna Ortega might’ve established herself in the industry as a Disney Channel star when she was a kid, but now, her legacy sits firmly in the horror genre, her preference for scary tales and slashers asserting her as a modern-day scream queen.
Whether she’s donning a gothic attire to play the moodiest member of the Addams family in Wednesday, paying homage to classic 1970s horror with X, or joining the iconic Scream franchise, it’s not hard to find Ortega tapping into the darker sides of life onscreen. This might’ve come as a surprise to some fans of the star, who’d been used to seeing her in kids’ shows like Richie Rich and Stuck in the Middle, but really, you only have to look at her filmography to see that she has had a penchant for horror from the very beginning.
When she was just ten years old, she starred in Insidious: Chapter 2, and while her role wasn’t big, it was her first introduction to the genre, and clearly, she got a taste for it. The actor would then appear in the teen horror film The Babysitter: Killer Queen, but following that, her major role in the fifth Scream instalment would send her on a much more mature horror trajectory.
Interestingly, though, before Scream, Ortega could’ve appeared in a modern horror classic (she’s pretty sure she auditioned for it), but ultimately, it didn’t work out. Appearing on Kid Cudi’s podcast Big Bro, she revealed that she had thrown her hat in the ring for the part of Charlie in Ari Aster’s debut Hereditary.
She explained, “I didn’t understand it. I was so young when it came in, but I think I auditioned for Hereditary. Which, obviously, wouldn’t have made any sense for, especially like, my disposition as a kid. So, I understood, and I didn’t know what I was looking at, and they gave us barely any sides.”
Ortega might’ve already starred in Insidious: Chapter 2, but Hereditary was a whole different ball game. From that suddenly brutal decapitation scene to Toni Collette’s intense monologue, Aster’s film is so much more than a few supernatural scares, focusing on the true horrors of life, like losing a child and the grief and obsession that comes afterwards. This is portrayed with true terror, making Hereditary an unsettling nightmare, its fear factor sitting somewhere between the supernatural and reality.
Young actor Milly Shapiro would bag the role of Charlie instead, although Ortega isn’t particularly disappointed that she lost out on the role, revealing that she has “always taken rejection really well. It was like, two pages of just ominous words that, as a 12-year-old, kind of went over the head”.
With that being said, Ortega admits that she knew Hereditary was something special, adding, “I remember looking at it, and thinking, ‘I feel like this is an important movie’. And then it was”.
She might’ve missed out on a modern classic, but before she knew it, she had joined one of horror’s most iconic franchises with Scream, so she couldn’t be too mad.
