Jenna Ortega got her start in Hollywood as a child actor at age 9 and quickly gained a following with roles on hit series like Disney Channel’s “Stuck in the Middle.” She recently told The New York Times that she never endured misconduct as a kid on sets because her mother “watched over me like a hawk.” Ortega did not watch this year’s buzzy documentary series “Quiet on Set,” which included several stories of misconduct and harassment behind the scenes of Nickelodeon shows, but her mother did and “she called me about it.”
“I think for her, it was more pain, because she had seen the way that other children maybe weren’t protected or weren’t as looked after,” Ortega said about her mother’s reaction. “She watched over me like a hawk, so I think for her, it was more empathizing and wishing she somehow could have done something to help. She just called me saying she was so grateful that things were ok and that she was there to witness everything.”
While Ortega was fortunate enough to be shielded from any harassment on sets, she did acknowledge to The Times that “child acting is strange” in general.
“I see why my parents felt so hesitant about it, because you’re putting a child in an adult workplace,” Ortega said. “I think if I had just stayed growing up in Coachella Valley, I would be a completely different person. 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.”
“Children aren’t supposed to be working like that,” Ortega continued. “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.”
While Ortega admitted there are “times I regret” choosing an acting career at such a young age and “there’s times that my parents regret it,” she “wouldn’t change anything.”
“I don’t believe in that because if anything, I’m incredibly grateful for the lessons that it did teach me,” Ortega said. “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 D.P., 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.”
Ortega next appears in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which opens in theaters Sept. 6 from Warner Bros. after a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Head over to The New York Times’ website to read Ortega’s profile in its entirety.