The Radiohead album Jenna Ortega is obsessed with: “The only thing I l listened to”
It almost feels like a rite of passage to get obsessed with a Radiohead album while you’re in your formative years, whether that be as a teenager or as you enter your 20s. Whether you get drawn in by Thom Yorke’s adolescent cries of “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo”, or you find their experimental era the most groundbreaking moment in music history since Bob Dylan went electric, it’s safe to say Radiohead has soundtracked many of our developmental years.
Jenna Ortega, the Disney star turned scream queen, has appeared in her fair share of movies and shows since she began acting as a child, but even she isn’t immune to a Radiohead obsession. Appearing in Jane the Virgin as the younger version of the titular character, Ortega also secured roles in Disney shows like Richie Rich and Stuck in the Middle before moving on to more mature productions, such as You.
Her career as a movie star has seen her appear in various popular horror films in the past few years, such as 2022’s Scream and its sequel, Scream VI. That same year, she also landed a role in X, directed by Ti West, which is when she found herself obsessed with a certain Radiohead record. The album came to soundtrack her time on set, with the actor admitting that the album came to represent her time away from home, shooting a film that was incredibly far-removed from parts she’d played in the past.
Having just entered adulthood herself, Ortega played a character who desperately wanted to be taken seriously and treated as an adult being. As Lorraine, the girlfriend of a camera operator who joins a crew of amateur pornstars, she begins as quiet and prudish before ultimately deciding to get involved in the X-rated action.
It was during filming that she discovered OK Computer, Radiohead’s seminal 1997 record, released five years before Ortega was born. “I was shooting a film called X in New Zealand, and I became really, really close friends with Jim, one of the PAs on set, who was a huge Radiohead fan. Jim had said that his favourite album was OK Computer, and he explained to me the impact that it had on him as a kid growing up.”
The album was a turning point for Radiohead, who blended astute commentary on politics, consumerism, and capitalism with huge riffs, complex soundscapes, and experimental impulses. Ortega was blown away by it. “It became pretty much the only thing I listened to. I was out of the country by myself for the very first time. I had just turned 18, so I had that newfound independence. You’re slowly becoming an adult and the world becomes scarier, to be so far from home and learning to do things on my own.”
When you find an album that resonates with you so strongly, reminding you of a certain transformative time in your life, it’ll always occupy a space in your mind. “So I think because I’m so nostalgic for that time in my life, that album will forever hold immense significance,” Ortega admitted.
