Jenna Ortega Recalls ‘Terrifying’ Time Having to Act Like She Was On Ecstasy
Jenna Ortega’s done a lot in her time as an actor. She’s flexed her acting muscles in all kinds of scenes. Take the intense game of capture the flag in Yes Day. Or evading a killer in Scream VI. However, the Wednesday star’s revealed she had a particularly “terrifying” time acting like she was on ecstasy.
Jenna Ortega asked herself, ‘How do you be high on ecstasy?’ before filming ‘The Fallout’
Ortega had questions about her role in 2022’s The Fallout long before cameras were rolling. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, the 20-year-old revealed one thought ran through her mind before playing Vada Cavell, a teen navigating the aftermath of a high school shooting.
“Before the project started, I remember thinking: How do you be high on ecstasy?’” Ortega told the outlet in June 2023.
The actor, who spent months preparing for the scene, explained she’d, up until that point, kept preparation for roles rather relaxed. Why? Because, as Ortega said, real life is spontaneous.
“You never know what you’re going to say next or what your next facial expression is going to be,” she said. “So I try not to do that for characters.”
‘The Fallout’ taught Jenna Ortega not to ‘prepare’ as much for future roles
Ortega continued, explaining preparing for The Fallout and the ecstasy scene, in particular, proved to be a learning experience.
Noting she recorded herself “doing crazy things” in her bedroom to prepare, the Disney Channel alum said a curveball on the day of filming — being asked by director Megan Park to walk down a staircase — made her realize not preparing as much, or as intensely, works better for her personally.
“I realized I will never prepare [like that] again,” she said. “Because the stress when I saw those stairs and not having anything that was usable was terrifying.”
Jenna Ortega’s next role is Mabel in ‘Finestkind’
After her “terrifying” experience filming The Fallout, the actor is hitting the water. Well, sort of. She’s starring in Finestkind, a thriller from writer-director Brian Helgeland, about fishermen who become entangled with organized crime.
Set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2023, Finestkind has Ortega playing Mabel, a young woman “caught in the middle” of estranged brothers and their plan to get out of debt (via TIFF). Mabel, who is “trying to make her own future,” starts dating Toby Wallace’s character Charlie. The cast also includes Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Foster, and Tim Daly among others.
Finestkind, which is expected to hit Paramount+ later in 2023, doesn’t have an official trailer yet. However, there has been a glimpse of Ortega and her fellow cast members in a photo.
The image, posted to Twitter by TIFF, shows Ortega, Jones, Foster, and Wallace in character on what appears to be a run-down fishing boat. They’re described in the caption as a “team who tread dangerous waters after their debts start piling up, in this new crime drama.”
The Fallout is available to stream on Max.
