Jenna Ortega admitted she’s working on setting “better boundaries” with the public after following Disney Channel’s media training guidance early in her career.
“When I was young, and I was on Disney Channel, they took us to media training, right?” Ortega told “Happy Sad Confused” host Josh Horowitz. “And they told us, you know, ‘Every time someone meets you, it’s probably the only time they’re ever going to interact with you, like that’s a very special moment in their lives. So just be aware of that.’”
Ortega, who starred on Disney Channel’s “Stuck in the Middle” between 2016 and 2018, then jokingly added: “No pressure!”
As Ortega went on, she confessed that this advice “has never left me,” adding, “And sometimes I try to give myself grace, and I’m trying to have better boundaries.”
Namely, Ortega, who reached A-list fame with her starring roles in Netflix’s “Wednesday” and the 2020s’ “Scream” revival, shared she was no longer agreeing to photos with any person on the street.
“So maybe if I feel like it’s not so safe of a situation or maybe I don’t want to stop and agree to take a photo with a random grown man,” Ortega said. “Kids and things like that, of course. It is a lot though. And, again, it’s sweet. Some of the interactions are so sweet, and then some of them are a little bit more embarrassing or aggressive or mean. And it’s hard to know what the balance is. But you just… I do what I can.”
Watch her full interview below.
This is not the first time Ortega has reflected on the struggles of child stardom. Back in August, she told Esquire that she avoided asking for anything on set in order to stay in the production’s good graces.
“I wasn’t asking for a sip of water,” she said at the time. “I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody.”
She added: “Maybe that was my mistake, was not actually looking after myself.”
Ortega did not specify which set she was talking about.
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