Jenna Ortega poses during the photocall for the movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at a Four Seasons Hotel on August 13, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo / Jaime Nogales / Medios y Media / Getty Images
Jenna Ortega poses during the photocall for the movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at a Four Seasons Hotel on August 13, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo / Jaime Nogales / Medios y Media / Getty Images
Warning: Mentions non-consensual images and content depicting minors.
The 21-year-old actress has opened up about the “terrifying” dangers of the social media platform.
A child actor has revealed the sinister reason behind her quitting Twitter several years ago, claiming she came across “dirty” AI-generated images of herself when she was a minor.
Jenna Ortega, the star of the popular series Wednesday on Netflix, spoke candidly about her “disgusting” experience with the social network - now officially known as X - in an interview with the New York Times ahead of her appearance in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week.
The 21-year-old does not currently have a verified account on X and claims she deleted her account two or three years ago after receiving a barrage of “absurd images and photos”.
“Did I like being 14 and making a Twitter account because I was supposed to and seeing dirty, edited content of me as a child? No. It’s terrifying. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong,” she told the outlet.
“I used to have that Twitter account and I was told, ‘Oh, you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to build your image’. I ended up deleting it about two, three years ago because the influx after the show had come out - these absurd images and photos, and I already was in a confused state [and] I just deleted it.
“It was disgusting, and it made me feel bad. It made me feel uncomfortable,” Ortega continued. “Anyway, that’s why I deleted it, because I couldn’t say anything without seeing something like that. So one day I just woke up, and I thought, ‘I don’t need this anymore’. So I dropped it.”
Although the law is catching up to non-consensual images and deepfakes, experts say more needs to be done. Earlier this month, the San Francisco City Attorney issued a landmark lawsuit against 16 “nudify” websites accused of violating United States laws in relation to non-consensual intimate images and child abuse material.
The “nudify” sites and apps are simple to use: in a nutshell, they allow anyone to upload a photo of a real person to generate a fake but photo-realistic image of what they might look like undressed - turning someone’s picture into an explicit image within seconds.
Speaking to the New York Times, Ortega recalled being 12 years old when she received a message from a follower on social media that contained “an unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals”.
“That was just the beginning of what was to come,” she added.
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in 'Wednesday'.
The star was just 9 years old when she began her acting career: her first credited role on IMDb is an episode of the short-lived 2012 sitcom Rob, while her first film appearance was a small role as the vice-president’s daughter in 2013′s Iron Man 3.
She admitted although there are times she and her parents “regret” her early years in the spotlight, she ultimately “wouldn’t change anything”.
“If anything, I’m incredibly grateful for the lessons that it did teach me... I feel incredibly safe and comfortable and excited to go to work every day because it’s familiar to me,” she told the outlet.
Her upcoming project Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will open the Venice Film Festival on August 28, before releasing in theatres in September. Its New Zealand release date is currently set for September 5.
The actress has been booked and busy in recent times, with two other projects currently in the pipeline. She recently filmed the black comedy Death of a Unicorn alongside Paul Rudd, and is the star of the upcoming science-fiction film Klara and the Sun - directed by New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi.
In April, Ortega and a cast of extras were spotted being directed by Waititi on High St in Auckland’s CBD after initially filming in the Queenstown area. Several local businesses told the Herald the filming process was smooth and disruption was minimal.
Last year, filmmaker and TV producer Steven DeKnight lambasted a then-20-year-old Ortega as “entitled” and “beyond toxic” on social media, claiming the actress “publicly s***” on the producers and writers of Wednesday, the hit Netflix spin-off of The Addams Family franchise.
DeKnight made the sensational claims on Twitter, adding that “life’s too short to deal with people like this in the business”.
His outburst was sparked after Ortega spoke on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, during which she admitted she had sometimes been “unprofessional” on set as she struggled with Wednesday’s material.
However, DeKnight later toned down his comments and issued an apology of sorts, tweeting: “I can’t stress this enough: She’s an amazing talent. It was just an unfortunate situation to expose creative differences publicly.
“Also, I’ll admit that writers are on edge because of the impending strike, myself included. A perfect storm.
“She’s fantastic, which I keep saying over and over. It was an unfortunate gaffe to say that publicly. We’ve all had them. Learning experience for everyone. Me included.”
According to reports, the second season of Wednesday - which became the second-most-watched English language show on Netflix - began filming in Ireland in May.
