Jenna Ortega Nearly Quit Acting at 15 Before You Role

Jenna Ortega, the 23-year-old star of Netflix's "Wednesday," revealed that she nearly abandoned her acting career as a teenager, only to be drawn back by a key role in the psychological thriller "You."

In an interview on the April 8 episode of Kid Cudi's "Big Bro" podcast, Ortega described feeling uncertain after wrapping up her run on Disney Channel's "Stuck in the Middle" in 2018, when she was 15. The series, which aired from 2016 to 2018, had been her steady gig since starting as a child actor at age 10 in projects like Netflix's "Richie Rich." With high school beginning, she saw it as an ideal moment to step away and pursue a more ordinary life. "I'd gotten off a children's show, and I didn't know what I was going to do," she said. "I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn't know who I was. It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to. I was starting high school, and it was a good run sort of thing."

Ortega discussed the possibility with her team for several months, contemplating alternatives beyond acting, which she had rarely considered seriously. Her perspective shifted dramatically after booking the role of Ellie Alves,...