Jenna Ortega considered quitting acting before landing You role

Jenna Ortega has revealed that she seriously considered quitting acting before landing her role on the TV show You in 2019.

The Wednesday actress admitted on Kid Cudi's Big Bro podcast that she found herself at a crossroads when she finished her Disney Channel show Stuck in the Middle in 2018 and wasn't sure what to do next.

However, when she booked her role as Ellie Alves in season 2 of You in 2019, she realised there was "no way" she could give up acting.

"I didn't know what else I was gonna do," the 23-year-old shared. "I've never really considered anything else, more so recently, just out of sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience. But when I was a teenager, I'd gotten off a children's show, and I didn't know what I was going to do. I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn't know who I was."

Ortega continued, "It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to. I was starting high school, and, 'it was a good run' sort of thing. We had talked about it for a few months with my team. And then, I think I booked that show You, and then I went on that set and I loved it and had the best time. I thought, 'Yeah, there's no way I could let this go.'"

In Season 2 of You, Ortega plays the downstairs neighbour of Penn Badgley's stalker character Joe Goldberg.

Since then, the actress has enjoyed a successful career in film and television, with projects including Scream, X and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. She is perhaps best known for playing Wednesday Addams in the Netflix TV show Wednesday since 2022.