Jenna Ortega jokes that she has to “endure” hosting “SNL.”
Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera talk with USA TODAY’s Brian Truitt about “Scream VI,” which this time is set in New York City.
Have a conversation!, USA TODAY
Jenna Ortega comments on the rise of explicit AI imagery.
The 21-year-old “Wednesday” star revealed in an interview with the New York Times podcast “The Interview” that she left X, formerly Twitter, after being sent fake pornographic images of herself that were created using artificial intelligence.
“Did I enjoy opening a Twitter account at 14 because I was supposed to and seeing dirty edited content of myself as a child?” she said. “No. It’s horrifying. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong. It’s disgusting.”
The actress, who told the anecdote after being asked what she thought about AI, went on to say that she deleted her account due to the flood of “these absurd images and photos” of her following the release of the Netflix series “Wednesday” in 2022.
“It’s just so disgusting and I was already so confused that I just deleted it because it was unnecessary and I didn’t need that,” she said, adding: “It was just disgusting and I felt bad. I felt uncomfortable. It’s awful. Anyway, the reason I deleted it is because I couldn’t say anything without seeing something like that and I don’t need to see that every day.”
Ortega also told the Times that the first direct message she opened at age 12 was an “unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals,” which was “just the beginning of what was to come.” The actress no longer has an official account on X, but is active on Instagram.
Like Jenna Ortega made an iconic outsider of the “Addams Family” her own for Netflix’s “Wednesday”
Earlier this year, a series of sexually explicit AI images of Taylor Swift circulated on X, sparking widespread outrage. Many of the photos were removed for violating X’s policies.
After roles in the Disney Channel series “Stuck in the Middle” and films such as “Scream” and “The Fallout,” Ortega rose to even greater prominence following the release of “Wednesday,” which became a huge hit for Netflix in 2022.
She will next be seen alongside Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder in Tim Burton’s highly anticipated sequel to Beetlejuice, which hits theaters September 6.
Jenna Ortega comments on the age difference controversy with Martin Freeman in “Miller’s Girl”
In the podcast “Interview,” Ortega talked about the pressure of being famous at such a young age.
“I’m so underdeveloped,” she said. “My prefrontal cortex isn’t even technically fully developed yet, you know? I want to make mistakes and learn from them and fall flat on my face, and maybe the opposite: I want to be extremely confident and try everything and do everything and be the one who takes the most risks. Whether I like it or not, the stakes are a lot higher now.”
The “Scream VI” star spoke about the dark side of social media in an interview as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series in 2023.
“Social media does so much to everyone our age that we constantly compare ourselves,” she said. “It almost influences the bandwagon mentality. … It’s very manipulative.”
Contributors: Edward Segarra
