Jenna Ortega Eyes Directorial Debut With Script She's Been Developing for 10 Years
Jenna Ortega is preparing to step behind the camera with her first directorial project—one she's been quietly developing for nearly a decade.
The 21-year-old "Wednesday" star explained in a new interview with V Magazine that she is finally continuing to develop a screenplay she began writing as a child actor.
"I have a script that I've known that I was going to make for almost 10 years," Ortega said. "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."
Shifting Gears Behind the Camera
Even if the project is still early on, Ortega revealed that she is currently working on how to manifest it.
"I'm just putting the puzzle pieces together in my head," she explained. "So I think I needed a few years of that under my belt to understand the order of doing things."
Though Ortega may have a part in this project, it's plain to see that her long game is as a director.
"That's probably the main thing that I want to do. I see that for myself," she said. "I just feel that's the way my brain wants to work and think, and that's how I even view my acting sometimes."
Ortega's obsession with directing isn't just nonsense. She has already held creative leadership positions as an executive producer on the feature "Death of a Unicorn" and the next season of Netflix's "Wednesday." In addition to this, she's recently lined up with Edward Shults to executive produce and star in the thriller "Hurry Up Tomorrow," which will also star The Weeknd and Barry Keoghan.
In the future, and in response to an audience question as to whether she would put herself in one of her films, Ortega said she was looking forward to doing it full-time, even if that meant not acting in them.
"I don't want to be in the things that I create in the future," she said. "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."
