Jenna Ortega Says She Almost Quit Acting Before Landing ‘You’ Role

Jenna Ortgea said during a recent appearance on Kid Cudi’s “Big Bro” podcast that she was seriously considering giving up acting until she landed the part of Ellie Alves on Netflix‘s “You.”

“I didn’t know what else I was gonna do,” Ortega said. “I’ve never really considered anything else, more so recently, just out of sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience. But when I was a teenager, I’d gotten off a children’s show, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn’t know who I was.”

She added, “It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to. I was starting high school, and, ‘it was a good run’ sort of thing. We had talked about it for a few months with my team. And then, I think I booked that show ‘You,’ and then I went on that set, and I loved it and had the best time. I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.’”

Ortega got her start on kids’ shows like Netflix’s “Richie Rich” and Disney’s “Stuck in the Middle.” In 2019, she landed the role of Ellie on Season 2 of “You.” Ortega’s character was Joe Goldberg’s (Penn Badgley) downstairs neighbor.

Ortega’s more recent work includes leading roles in films like “X,” “Scream VI,” “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” and “Death of a Unicorn.” She is also the face of Netflix’s Emmy-winning “Addams Family” adaptation, “Wednesday.”