Jenna Ortega Says Child Stars 'Aren't Supposed to Be Working Like That'

Jenna Ortega. VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

Jenna Ortega found success as a child actor, but she doesn’t think Hollywood is the best place for a kid.

“Children aren’t supposed to be working like that,” Ortega, now 21, told The New York Times in an interview published on Saturday, August 24. “They are supposed to be climbing trees and drawing and going to school. Some of those kids’ parents don’t even take school seriously, so I feel really, really fortunate to have had parents who made sure that I hung out with friends, made sure that I went to public school and wouldn’t allow me to work on a job unless I had straight A’s and was prioritizing my sleep and my schoolwork.”

Ortega, who stars in September’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, has said her parents helped her pursue acting at age 9 after she expressed her interest over several years. She quickly made her sitcom debut in 2012, going on to play Young Jane on The CW’s Jane the Virgin and landing a leading role on Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle.

“Child acting is strange,” Ortega told the NYT. “I see why my parents felt so hesitant about it, because you’re putting a child in an adult workplace. I think if I had just stayed growing up in Coachella Valley, I would be a completely different person.”

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She continued, “I wouldn’t speak the way that I do or approach interactions the way that I do. It’s completely changed my way of thinking and going about life, and when I speak to other child actors, I can pick them out instantly because we all have that — it’s just very specific, like some secret little language or something that we all share.”

The Wednesday star said her mother recently watched the docuseries Quiet on Set and told Ortega that she was grateful she didn’t experience anything as traumatic. Ortega believes she was able to stay safe because of her family’s watchful eye, but she noted that she certainly had some negative experiences, whether it be seeing sexually explicit AI images of herself as a child or just dealing with some less-than-savory people in Hollywood.

Jenna Ortega. Marc Piasecki/WireImage

“Just speaking about my career as a child overall, there were definitely a few moments where you realized, ‘Oh, maybe that person didn’t have my best interests,’ or maybe they didn’t want to be as supportive of me as they said, and that’s a hard lesson to learn so young, and especially hard when you have adults or people who should know better addressing you in a way that is potentially harmful to somebody whose brain is still growing and developing,” she explained.

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While she acknowledges that the odd upbringing isn’t the healthiest environment for a kid, Ortega explained that she wouldn’t change her past.

“There’s times that I regret it; there’s times that my parents regret it. Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything,” she admitted. “I don’t believe in that because if anything, I’m incredibly grateful for the lessons that it did teach me.”

She explained, “I love that when I go on a set now, I’m incredibly knowledgeable. I know what the camera verbiage means, I know what a grip’s job is, I know what a gaffer’s job is, I can get along with the [director of photography], I can go through shot lists. I understand it all. I know what’s going on around me, therefore I feel incredibly safe and comfortable and excited to go to work every day because it’s familiar to me.”