Jenna Ortega says she didn’t eat or drink as child star to ‘avoid getting in the way’
Jenna Ortega (Getty Images)
Jenna Ortega has said that, as a child actor, she would go entire days on set without asking for food or water because she wanted to avoid being “in the way of anybody”.
Speaking in with Esquire, Ortega reflected on what she called “rookie mistakes” and the pressure she felt to be low-maintenance at work.
“I wasn’t asking for a sip of water. I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody,” she said.
Ortega added that she now sees a cost to that approach. “Maybe that was my mistake, was not actually looking after myself,” the Wednesday star said.
Pressure to be ‘easy’ on set
Ortega also described feeling like she had to show up with her “game face” on as a child performer.
“I really had it going for me as a child ‘cause I can’t think of one mistake I made,” she said. “Is that a terrible thing to say? I feel like I make mistakes now all the time, but as a child, I was so grateful and so excited to be there that my game face was on.”
Asked about stigmas surrounding child stars, Ortega added: “Is it wrong to say that a lot of them are true? And do with that what you will.”
‘I was seven years old’
Ortega said she was “seven years old” when she first told her parents she wanted to act, adding that their laughter became part of her motivation.
The actress later broke out as the lead of Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle, which debuted in 2016 when she was 13.
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