Jenna Ortega hinted at her plans to step away from TV after her hit Netflix series Wednesday comes to an end.
“I actually haven’t had a lot of franchise conversations,” Ortega, 24, said on a recent appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast. “What I’m meant to do will come and find me.”
She continued: “I think after Wednesday, I’ll probably be off the TV for a while. You know, I had many years doing [TV]. I was bouncing from show to show as a kid and I want to leave time for new things.”
This isn’t the first time Ortega teased a shift in her career.
“It’s only been in the last year or so — especially with the show coming to a head and getting ready to enter this next chapter in my life and career — that I’ve really honed in,” she told Esquire in August.
At the time, Ortega recalled the challenges of being on set as a child actor.
“I really had it going for me as a child because I can’t think of one mistake I made. Is that a terrible thing to say?” she said. “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.”
Ortega explained how the pressure affected her health, adding, “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. Maybe that was my mistake [of] not actually looking after myself.”
Since rising to fame with roles on the Disney Channel and as the lead in Netflix’s Wednesday, Jenna has called out the potential dangers of child stardom.
“Children aren’t supposed to be working like that. They are supposed to be climbing trees and drawing and going to school,” she told The New York Times in August 2024. “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.”
She continued: “Child acting is strange. 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. I wouldn’t speak the way that I do or approach interactions the way that I do.”
Season 3 of Wednesday wrapped production last month. The series is expected to return to Netflix next year.
