Wednesday actor Jenna Ortega reveals she lost a lot of roles because of her looks

Actress Jenna Ortega who stunned us all with her impactful role as the lead in Wednesday is now talking about her Hispanic looks and how that has impacted her success in the entertainment world. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she spoke about the pressures she faced as she had to go for auditions when she was younger, losing out on roles and not conforming to industry beauty standards.

Jenna said, “As a child actor, there are two jobs that you can get: you’re either the younger version of someone or you’re playing somebody’s daughter — and there were just not many leading Hispanic actors who I could be that for."

Jenna Ortega was born to parents of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. She added, “So a lot of the jobs that I was going for growing up would never work out, because I didn’t look [a certain] way. That was really hard, to hear that something you couldn’t change was what was preventing you [from succeeding].”

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At the start of her career, she was told what to do and that affected her confidence and self-esteem. But as she grew up, she owned her physical attributes and decided that none of this would ever be a deterrent to her achieving what she truly deserved. “I thought I don’t want other young girls to look up at the screen and feel like they have to change their appearance to be deemed beautiful or worthy,” Jenna said.

Hoping to bring a fair representation for people back home and increase Hispanic representation in television and film, the Wednesday actress said, “I want all people of Latin descent to be able to see themselves on screen. I want to feel that I could open doors for other people.”