Jenna Ortega’s career kicked off in the early 2010s, with bit roles in movies like Iron Man 3 and Insidious: Chapter 2 and shows like Days of Our Lives and CSI: NY. Her rise started in 2014, when she began playing the younger version of the title character in Jane the Virgin, at which point she also started her time as a Disney star via Stuck in the Middle, Elena of Avalor, and Big City Greens. Her career as an adult performer (though at the age of 17) began with You, where she established herself as someone proficient with serious, even frightening material.
This was just the start though because, while she has branched out of the horror and thriller genres, they are still clearly her bread and butter. And four years ago, the best of the bunch, Ti West’s X, hit theaters and cemented the notion that she was the modern era’s top “Scream Queen,” rivaled only by Samara Weaving.
Jenna Ortega’s Horror Career & How X Stood Out
After You in 2019, Ortega continued to get meatier roles in attention-grabbing productions. First was The Babysitter: Killer Queen, in which she played what amounted to the secondary protagonist role. It didn’t hold a candle to the original, but it was important in establishing that Ortega excelled in the horror genre (it’s also the first of two movies featuring both her and Weaving).
But it wasn’t until two years later that she became a full-on genre icon. In January, she played Tara Carpenter in Scream, which was again a secondary role but continued to establish her in the genre. After all, she plays what amounts to the Drew Barrymore role in the original. After that she had a cameo in Studio 666 in February. But it was X that told audiences once and for all that she was a natural in spooky movies.
X proved to be not only her most well-reviewed movie to date, but the scariest as well. It didn’t take long for it to be hailed as a modern classic of the genre, and that assessment of its quality is correct. She also has a great role in it, playing a timid character who ultimately participates in the adult film in a way that isn’t behind the camera. And, as is the horror movie standard, this costs her dearly.
After X came the proof that she had moved on from strong supporting roles to the lead. And, again, they were in horror projects. First came American Carnage in July, which was her first lead role in a movie since HBO Max’s The Fallout and, four months after that was the big one: Wednesday. With that she began to confirm that she is the next Christina Ricci, Winona Ryder, and modern-day Tim Burton muse, especially once Beetlejuice Beetlejuice rolled around.
Ortega is the real deal, a performer with range who is perpetually pushing herself forward. To that point, Death of a Unicorn was her first time serving as executive producer, which is a role she filled on her two subsequent films, Hurry Up Tomorrow and the upcoming The Gallerist. Later this year we’ll see her go from horror to sci-fi via J.J. Abrams’ The Great Beyond and Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, but it won’t be too long before she returns to horror with the third season of Wednesday.
Do you think X is Ortega’s best horror movie? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!