Jenna Ortega ready to direct her own script
Jenna Ortega is ready to direct a movie.
The ‘Wednesday’ actress has been working on a script for nearly a decade and thinks she now has enough experience now to start moving the project forward.
She told The Weeknd in conversation for V magazine: “I have a script that I’ve known that I was going to make for almost 10 years. It’s weird because it’s something that I thought of when I was younger and when I first started out in this field, and it’s only now that I’m actually starting to take the steps to get it made, which is really interesting.
“I’m just putting the puzzle pieces together in my head. So I think I needed a few years of that under my belt to understand the order of doing things.
“Everything that I’ve done in my career, I feel like there’s a reason why I didn’t make this story at an earlier time, but I’m really excited about it. Then there are a couple of other things I’m trying to develop right now, but it’s strictly off of being inspired by another actor or a writer, characters that I’ve never really gotten the opportunity to play before. They’re very different preparation processes.
“So for me, it’s always fun to try something new. But I think oftentimes to get the stories that you want to get made nowadays, you kind of have to start them yourself.”
While the 22-year-old actress plans to star in this movie, she doesn’t think she’ll be on camera for any future writing and directing projects she creates.
She said: “This one in particular, I see myself in it, but I really want to direct. That’s probably the main thing that I want to do. I see that for myself. I just feel that’s the way my brain wants to work and think, and that’s how I even view my acting sometimes.
“I don’t want to be in the things that I create in the future, but starting out, because I’ve created more leverage for myself with a name as an actor, I may as well use that as a stepping stone.”
Jenna admitted she has an “incessant need” to keep pushing herself creatively.
She said: “As far as my own stories go, I think sometimes when you’re a creative person, or you’re in any sort of art field, you kind of just feel this incessant need to keep doing more, keep trying new things, and whether that is the medium that you’re practicing in or another medium.
“It’s like you with your music, your film career, and your acting career. It’s your innovative brain—your brain wants to keep moving, and you want to keep taking steps forward.
“So I feel like it would only be a natural process in my career for me to start taking those steps forward.”
