Key Takeaways
- Jenna Ortega said Disney Channel media trainers taught her to treat every fan encounter as a once-in-a-lifetime moment, a lesson that made setting personal boundaries difficult.
- Ortega said she now declines photo requests when she feels unsafe or uncomfortable, particularly with unfamiliar adult men, while still making time for younger fans.
- The 24-year-old actor said fan interactions can range from sweet to aggressive or mean, so she is learning to give herself grace and “do what I can.”
Jenna Ortega is unlearning a lesson she picked up as a teenage actor: that every stranger who approaches her deserves the performance of a lifetime.
Speaking with host Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ortega recalled the instruction she received during her Disney Channel years, when media trainers told her how to think about fans who recognized her.
"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," Ortega recalled being told. "So just be aware of that."
Her reaction at the time, she said, "No pressure!"
"That has never left me," Ortega said. "And sometimes I try to give myself grace, and I'm trying to have better boundaries."
Ortega said now, she will pass on a photo request when the circumstances feel off, while still making time for younger fans.
"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," she said. "Kids and things like that, of course."
She described the volume of encounters as difficult.
"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,” she explained. “I do what I can."
Ortega, 24, started acting professionally at nine and was 13 when she began playing Harley Diaz on Stuck in the Middle, which ran from 2016 to 2018. She also voiced Princess Isabel on Elena of Avalor and turned up on Big City Greens.
The podcast remarks follow a recent stretch of comments Ortega has made about her childhood career.
In August, Ortega said she would "go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody," and said many of the stereotypes about child stars are true. In a Vogue interview, she said she has quietly managed obsessive-compulsive disorder since age 7.
