Jenna Ortega Shares the Unsettling Reason She Stopped Complimenting Fans
Ever wonder what it feels like to accidentally terrify your own fans while just trying to be nice? Jenna Ortega—yes, the gal who’s gone from “that kid on Jane the Virgin” to the face of Gen Z’s scream-inducing royalty—knows that particular awkwardness all too well . At just 24, she’s played everyone from Harley Diaz to Wednesday Addams, and somewhere between horror flicks and quirky comedies, she’s become the type you’d want to run into at a coffee shop… or would you?
Picture this: You’re dressed as your favorite Netflix character (maybe the eternally misunderstood Wednesday or the ray-of-sunshine Enid) and the actual actor who made that persona iconic offers you a compliment. Cute, right? Now imagine your instant reaction is to sprint away like she’s a masked villain from Scream—yeah, that’s happened . Ortega’s life is basically a highlight reel of side-quests for anyone dressing up as her characters (especially around Halloween), but lately, she’s realized that maybe being too friendly just leaves her feeling like, well, a bit of a creep .
It’s a hilarious and oddly relatable confession from someone who’s everywhere—except, apparently, in public, handing out compliments. So why does most-loved-by-fans sometimes mean “most awkward in real life”? Time to peel back the curtain on how our icons dodge social mishaps while navigating their own fame-induced weirdness . LEARN MORE.
From young Jane to Wednesday and Harley Diaz to Tara Carpenter, Jenna Ortega already has a list of characters under her belt at the age of 24.
Dubbed as Gen Z’s scream queen, the star has recently spoken about having some time away from the limelight and disappearing from our screens for a bit.
But it seems that while she does do that, she won’t be dishing out random compliments to fans of her work in the wild.
That confession comes as Ortega admits previous instances of praising the fancy dress of viewers of the Netflix series Wednesday left her feeling like a bit of a ‘creep’.
One of her best-known roles, the American actor began starring as Wednesday Addams in the horror comedy show back in 2022, loved by fans of various age groups.
Fans often dress up as characters from the show, such as Wednesday and Enid. (James Gourley/Getty Images for Netflix)
And naturally, the series has influenced Halloween costumes over the years – I mean, the Addams Family has long-been a go-to.
Ortega has been on a press tour in the UK recently for her latest film, Klara and the Sun, which also stars Amy Adams.
While the pair were appearing on Greatest Hits Radio, host Zoe Ball asked the Scream actor if she would ever be ‘tempted to go out as Wednesday’ for the spooky season.
“Not as myself, no,” she was quick to say as she joked ‘let’s get over yourself’.
“It’s a bit too on the nose,” Ortega added.
She then went on to recall a time a few years ago when she was on a walk in Brooklyn, New York, during Halloween and saw a girl dressed as Enid – Wednesday’s roommate in the series, a colourful and bright Wolf girl played by Emma Myers. Basically, Enid is the opposite to her best friend.
“I saw this Enid and I said, ‘oh my God, I love your costume, you look great,’” Ortega recalled.
“And she looked at me like I was a creep.”
Then, the same thing happened again when the star was getting a coffee and came across a ‘six-year-old blonde girl’.
“Her wig was falling off. And I told her, ‘oh, you look so beautiful’. And she looked at me and then ran back to her classmates,” Ortega continued.
“I was like, ‘oh my god, I just scared this girl.’”
Obviously, that was not the star’s intention so nowadays she just tends to ‘leave them be’.
“I’m done in that department,” she added.
Well, fair enough to be honest.
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