Jenna Ortega reveals the role that escaped her: “An unbelievable movie”

Jenna Ortega in Hereditary? It could have happened.

During an appearance on pal Kid Cudi’s new podcast, Big brotheraged 23 years Wednesday The star revealed that she auditioned for the Ari Aster horror film, which was released by A24 in January 2018. Hereditarywhich obviously didn’t make any sense, especially for my character as a kid, so I get it,” she told Cody, her friend since they starred together in Ti West’s slasher picture X Opposite Mia Goth, Brittany Snow and Martin Henderson.

Ortega said that although she only received a specific portion of the script, she knew it would be impactful. “I didn’t know what I was looking at, and they hardly gave us any sides. It was like two pages of ominous words that went through a 12-year-old’s head,” she explained. “But I remember seeing it, and looking at it, and thinking, ‘I feel like this is an important movie,’ and then it was.”

Aster Hereditarywhich he directed from his own script, focuses on a family struggling to understand the mysterious events that occur in the wake of the death of matriarch Ellen, played by Ann Dowd. The woman’s daughter, a miniature artist named Annie played by Toni Collette, begins to uncover disturbing secrets just as the family is struck by a personal tragedy when their 13-year-old daughter, Charlie, dies in a horrific car accident while her older brother is behind the wheel. Ortega auditioned for the role of the 13-year-old in the role, which went to Millie Shapiro, while Alex Wolff played the older brother. It was a key part too, as Charlie was a terrifying presence on screen as his family grew concerned about her strange behaviour.

“Then he came out, and we went to the theater,” Ortega recalls. Hereditary Back in 2018. “I sat in my chair and looked at my mom and said, ‘This is the one I said it would be in.’” You know, we didn’t even realize it [is what we were seeing]. But an incredible movie. It’s funny to think I did that because again, I didn’t make any sense of it.

Ortega added that she has always handled rejection well. “I never question it. I didn’t want to get into that kind of thing, and what was meant for me would come to me or you know I would find it somehow.”

Ortega’s conversation with Cody generated a fair amount of headlines focusing on that part when she opened up about the time she almost stopped acting altogether. The actress, who grew up in palm springs, california, has appeared as a child star on shows like Learn all about Nina, Richie Rich and Stuck in the middle. Then came a crossroads.

“I didn’t know what else I was going to do,” Ortega told Cody. “I’d never thought about anything else, lately, just out of curiosity and wanting to experience another life. But when I was a teenager, I had come out of 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 managers who didn’t know who I was. I felt like it was the right time to stop working if I was going to do this.”

Ortega was about to start high school and felt it “was a good experience.” “We talked about it for months with my team, and after that, I think I booked this show You“Then I went on that set, loved it and had the best time,” Ortega said of the thrilling Netflix series starring Penn Badgley as a serial killer. “I thought, ‘Yes, there’s no way I can leave this.’

She has been working at a feverish clip ever since. But now Ortega finds herself in a rare place with consecutive months of layoff. “I was so scared. I was so scared,” she says of taking a break. “I remember the first few weeks thinking, ‘Well, I don’t really know what to do with my hands. Maybe I’d like to take up a hobby?”

But now that her free time is over, Ortega said she feels much better. “I’ve learned a lot about what I enjoy and what I don’t enjoy. I know how to entertain myself well now, and I get to do real home things that I’ve been missing for a while, like cooking. I was never able to cook because you live in a hotel room.”