Jenna Ortega is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood right now, and a lot of that fame is thanks to her big Netflix hit, Wednesday. The 23-year-old recently reflected on the moment she realized the series would be life-changing, and whoa, what a story!
Wednesday first became available to stream with a Netflix subscription the day before Thanksgiving in 2022. And it still holds the record for the streaming service’s biggest English-language series debut ever, almost four years later. Here’s how Ortega knew the show was going to change her life:
It really was overnight. I think it was on Thanksgiving and I was on a walk with my nephew and some lady did some illegal behind-the-wheel work to get around so that I would take a photo with her daughter. And, they were like screaming from their car and I was wearing sweats and no makeup. The show had come out maybe a day or two before.
Can you imagine? It’s very rare for an overnight moment like this to happen for an actor, but that’s truly how it was for Jenna Ortega. And she was just taking a walk in her family’s neighborhood during the Thanksgiving holiday. It must have been a wild moment of realization for the Wednesday star, who was 20 at the time.
Prior to Wednesday, Ortega was already a working actress who had been the star of her own Disney Channel show called Stuck in the Middle. She also had a stint in Netflix’s You and was in the new Scream movie earlier that year. But Wednesday really made her suddenly famous.
In the same interview with Esquire, Ortega spoke of being perhaps a bit “naive” to realizing Wednesday was going to be such a big hit before it was released. In her words:
I had no idea. I was so confused. And then they started talking about this show and this big release that they were doing. When we were shooting in Romania, it felt like the small little thing. Maybe I was naive cause Tim Burton was involved, but the cast and I used to laugh about it like, 'Wow, this is an insane shoot for it to really not be acknowledged.' And then, I can't stand to watch myself, but I saw part of the first episode, and had a mental breakdown. Called my friend Matt. I was like, 'It's up.' Like, 'Okay, here we go.'
Wednesday came back for a second season last year (which she got to executive produce), and Season 3 is currently in production. The series has allowed Ortega to not only work closely with Tim Burton, but other big names like Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gwendoline Christie, Christina Ricci and Lady Gaga. In between, Jenna Ortega has also become a fashion icon on the red carpet, especially for her various on-theme fits to Wednesday’s goth aesthetic.
Otherwise, Jenna Ortega got to star in the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel and even hosted Saturday Night Live. Next, she’s got a film on the 2026 movie schedule that's one of the most exciting book-to-screen adaptations: Klara and the Sun. Her latest movie comes to theaters on October 23. While we might normalize Ortega’s fame these days, this is a good reminder that her “overnight” fame happened less than four years ago.
