Fallout Fashion the Improv Age of Consent
Jenna Ortega smiles at me from somewhere in Romania, her effortless dark waves filling my Zoom screen. As we discuss her motion picture The Fallout, which is now streaming on HBO following its honor-winning premiere at S by Southwest in 2021, the Latina extra is gracious, thoughtful, and poised. Though she's been a working actor since before she striking the double digits, appearing in films as varied as Iron Homo 3, You , and Insidious: Chapter 2, the California-native is poised to exist Hollywood'southward next megastar. She recently nabbed the titular part in Tim Burton's Wednesday series (which she's currently filming) nigh the famously deadpan Addams daughter, alongside a legendary cast including Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia. She also appears in the latest Scream moving picture, the fifth in the blockbuster franchise, and A24'due south forthcoming X, out in March. Simply Hollywood doesn't seem to have gone to her head: I can't help only render to the give-and-take "grounded" when recounting our brief conversation together.
Did I mention she's also wickedly talented?
In The Fallout, Ortega plays Vada, a student traumatized by a shooting at her high school. Rather than focusing on the shooter, the film explores what happens to Vada's mental wellness and relationships afterwards bearing witness to a horrifying act of gun violence, and the ripple effect of such terrorism. "One guy with a gun tin fuck up then many lives in 6 minutes," Vada says toward the stop of the moving-picture show. The line captures The Fallout's thesis succinctly while showcasing a performance defined past ease, no dubiousness a main reason writer and director Megan Park (an actress herself) was so eager to cast her.
Ortega, 19, came onto Park's radar after effusive praise from the managing director'due south friend and quondam Cloak-and-dagger Life of the American Teenager co-star, Francia Raisa, who arranged for the pair to meet over coffee. "I knew I wanted somebody who was really the age of this character," Park explains, "somebody who just actually embodied the qualities of what I feel like makes this young generation — Gen Z — so special and then interesting; somebody who was really honest and brave and assuming and smart and unafraid." Park adds that Jenna's mom accompanied her to their first meeting, since the actress was but 17 at the fourth dimension.
"I just fell in love," Park recounts. "I remember calling the producers from a parking garage being like, 'She's the one, I but know that she'due south the 1.'"
Park says she gave Ortega a "fun" have for each scene, allowing the actress to practise whatever she wanted. "Getting her to just do what was so special about her inherently was really magical to watch. Hopefully I helped guide her a little bit, but she is simply such a raw talent that it'south similar, I tin't even take credit for information technology."
Here, Ortega unpacks the procedure of executing such a delicate and sensitive field of study, what it felt like taking on the responsibility of Wednesday Addams, and much more.
So The Fallout — I want to hear your first impression upon reading the script.
Jenna Ortega: I was really, actually impressed because it was actually the showtime script, full feature-length film, that Megan [Park, author and director] had ever written. For a first-time writer, I think that dialogue is really difficult to chief and make sound natural. Peculiarly with a younger generation like Generation Z. So I was actually impressed by how organic and genuine it was — but then also it's moving.
I become through a lot of scripts. It'southward actually of import to me that I tell stories that need to be heard, or that will make some sort of touch on. And with a script as heavy merely also as important as The Fallout, I knew that information technology was something that I wanted to participate in. I fell in love with the character immediately considering I noticed our similarities, only I likewise noticed our differences. And I've never really had the opportunity to show such range or get to know a grapheme so well. And then this is my opportunity to do then and I was really excited that Megan reached out.
There are and then many intense scenes, and y'all're as well doing ecstasy and all these unlike drugs in the motion-picture show. Were you intimidated to take on the role?
I was definitely intimidated. One, because fortunately [a schoolhouse shooting is] not an experience I share. Although information technology is a very, very real concern for my generation, and fifty-fifty something that I experienced going to school, public school, going on lockdown and situations like that. I was really worried because I didn't want to tell a story that I didn't take the right to tell. I didn't want to overstep and insert myself and make somebody else's pain my ain, because equally of now, I have no understanding of that trauma. Only the fashion that information technology was pitched to me was ... an apology note to my generation and an agreement that, although this is incredibly painful, and something that [Gen Z] is dealing with and shouldn't accept to deal with, you're not alone.
I think that that's a actually of import message to share, especially in an era where social media creates such bad-mannered relationships and interactions with people. Maddie Ziegler'due south character Mia [a social media-famous dancer] ... nobody ever really understood her [in the pic]. The position she plays on social media makes people distant or shy. I think when nosotros're continued to our phone so much, we're lacking human connexion. I promise that's something that people take from the flick, how important it is that we connect as humans and aren't and so married to our phones. [I hope people] understand how important information technology is that we listen to ane some other.
That start scene with the shooting — tin you let us into how yous approached that? Information technology'south such an intense, emotional scene when you're in the bathroom with Maddie Ziegler's character.
Yep. Filming is so strange because typically, or a bulk of the time, things are out of lodge. So that was really ane of the last scenes we ever shot.
And so we had already gone on this emotional journey with these characters and dealing with the aftermath of the scene that nosotros had never really gotten to [shoot]. That built up tension contributed to the performance, or contributed to the spontaneity of the scene. Just because it was, oh my God, it'southward finally happening and this is real. I think that ... any projection that I've done before has never touched a topic like that. For me, information technology was really important that I approached the scene with care and caution and I was respectful towards it.
Nosotros had such an incredible time shooting, but I know between me, Maddie Ziegler, and Niles Fitch [who plays Quinton, a fellow pupil] ... it was so weird being on set because nobody really talked to each other that 24-hour interval. Nosotros were just acknowledging that what we were shooting was something that was very serious and real. We had people clapping wooden planks in the corner to brand gunshot [sounds] so we didn't really know when they were going to come. There was improv going on with the lines. Our positions changed every time. It was kind of new.
Wow, that sounds really intense. You had a corking cast that you were working with: Maddie Ziegler, Shailene Woodley, Julie Bowen. Were you a large fan of these other actresses beforehand? And is in that location anything you experience like they taught you about the procedure equally you went?
I've always had a lot of respect for Shailene Woodley. All of my therapy scenes were done with her at the get-go. Information technology was a really intimidating way to start off the process, just working with somebody that yous adore then profoundly and just desire to impress and practice a practiced job in front of. It was a lot.
And those are really important, crucial scenes. Just it also was a bang-up showtime considering she was but the loveliest, kindest human, and was so circumspect as a scene partner, even when [the photographic camera] wasn't on her face and they were getting my coverage … she gave her full performance every single time and was very, very attentive. I retrieve sometimes when you're an histrion, you know when scenes feel correct. Y'all know when you experience connected, when things are going your way and information technology feels natural and you almost don't fifty-fifty have to recollect nigh lines or what yous're going to do next because it's but known and you're just existing and that's such a beautiful feeling. And it'south so rare. And equally an actor, you're constantly chasing that. And any scene that I shot with Shailene was that, which is so wonderful. I had never seen Modern Family, but [Julie] is one of the funniest people ever.
She's bang-up. I love her on Mod Family unit.
Yep, then Maddie, I had known Maddie. I randomly did a photograph shoot with her a couple years ago.
So before we started this job, Maddie wanted to hang out and suspension the ice and I did as well. So she came over to my place for the first time and nosotros sat and talked for 13 hours. She was getting calls from her mom and boyfriend like, "Are you okay? Is everything all right?" [She] just fix the phone downwards and talked and talked and talked. So that was actually neat for me because our characters have such an intimate relationship, just information technology's really nice when yous have chemical science. I had known who Maddie Ziegler was for such a long time, and you never really know how somebody who's earned that much respect or has worked so difficult and climbed that far in the industry … I merely didn't know what to wait. And I was nervous. But she is, I mean, I honey her. She's the coolest and so talented.
One of my favorite parts of the movie was that big monologue you have at the stop — at that place'southward a line: "1 guy with a gun can fuck up and so many lives in six minutes." I want to hear about preparing for that.
The speech was the second day of shooting. That scene was actually the ane that I was most nervous for. I remember nosotros were going to shoot the film and then the pandemic happened. And then it got postponed for a few months, and randomly at night before I would get to bed I would refer back to the script. I would curl all the way to the lesser of the script and read those lines to myself or say them in the mirror. Sometimes that helps, simply to become the words flowing. When I shoot a scene, I kind of black out … I can't tell if the take [went well] or not, considering I have no idea what just happened. I remember feeling slap-up relief when it was done. Only it'southward also difficult because it's, OK, I can wipe that scene off and forget about it and other people [who accept experienced gun violence] tin can't.
Is there anything that y'all learned about yourself taking on this role that y'all're going to take with you lot into the remainder of your life?
I honestly don't think I've ever learned so much about myself on a task. I call up that information technology's insane how much hurting forces somebody to mature. And for someone like Vada, who's just your normal everyday teenage girl, to deal with something so traumatic and so early and so rapidly is so frightening. But I retrieve that it makes you more grateful for what you have.
I knew that I was a guarded person, but I didn't know how guarded. Growing upwardly, I prohibited myself from experiencing sure things, or peradventure nurturing relationships or friendships to the best I possibly could considering I put up such walls and I was so protective of my eye and my spirit that I never really let everyone in. I wasn't comfortable crying. I never cried during movies, never cried in front of other people. And afterward spending a lot of time with Vada, and exploring that vulnerable space and seeing how her guarded personality or her instinct to not bear witness likewise much emotion around other people affected her and hurt her, I think information technology forced me to accept a wait at my own life and wonder, maybe this is why I was struggling with certain relationships or scenarios similar that. And it's quite insane how much I've cried since. Information technology's become like a very healthy, consistent thing that I never saw myself being open to or experiencing. Only I permit myself to feel emotions every bit intensely every bit I always accept. I've just been a lot more than open nearly it and it'south been so freeing.
I really desire to bear upon Scream , and just briefly, if y'all tin can speak to the experience of filming that.
I don't know if it was because the pandemic and the bandage and I were forced into this pocket-size infinite where we couldn't really engage with anybody else, but they were the loveliest, or are the loveliest, coolest, kindest, most 18-carat people I've ever met. We however talk every day in a grouping chat. I've never experienced an environment on a ready like that before. It's probably my favorite fix I've e'er been on. And likewise horror is … you can't help simply accept a good fourth dimension considering you're just creating pure entertainment. Information technology's really exciting when the claret splats the right way. And only watching everybody get visibly excited, information technology's very different from something like The Fallout, where people are upset about what they just filmed rather than, "Oh my god, look, we're doing something and nosotros're giving people a good time."
So Wednesday Addams — what was it similar when you constitute out you had booked that role?
Really nerve wracking, honestly. I've never played such a character before. And so I recall it was actually of import to me to establish a divergence from performances that I've done in the past. But then as well, she's been done so beautifully past people before me that it'south really important that I do something fresh and dissimilar. We've never seen Wed as a teenage girl. If someone's 15 and they say something nasty, they sound like every other 15-twelvemonth-old. So it'southward been a little fleck of a challenge, or a fun challenge for me, I guess, to stay truthful to the grapheme while also giving her some sort of… information technology's so interesting giving range to a deadpan graphic symbol. Because you can't have the lead of a story not being receptive at all to the earth that's going on effectually her. That's been interesting as well, where it's like, "Oh, well, how do I make people agree with her but then also feel her struggles or feel her triumphs while showing no real emotion?"
If you have one, who is your Hollywood fairy godperson?
I've always been in honey with Viola Davis. If I could but accept a conversation with her, I call up she's one of the most talented people always.
Would you impale a bug or save a bug?
Low rise jeans. Aye or no?
Last affair you lot do earlier you leave the house?
If yous could just watch three movies for the residue of your life, which three would you choose?
Paris, Texas, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and … oh my god. No, I'thousand trying to call back. What's another good one … Oh, allow'south do — I don't desire to be like an annoying film person, but I want to say 8 ½.
Worst audition you've ever had?
Oh my god, worst I've ever had … I don't know why [I kept messing up] — I knew the lines. I call back I was just nervous because information technology was a task I wanted and there was this long monologue that I was supposed to say and I kept stumbling at the same part every fourth dimension. And when I would stumble, I would say, "Deplorable." And I did that like two, three times. Information technology was so embarrassing. And the casting director told me "Oh, don't worry about it. You don't take to say, sorry." And then I did it ane more time, apologized once again. And so she snapped at me. Like, "You don't need to say sorry."
And I said, "I'm so sorry." And then I concluded up booking the job. I don't call back what job it was, only I retrieve crying to my mom in the car later telling her, "Oh, information technology did not go well, there's no way that's happening." And so information technology did.
Oh, well, right at present, since I've been shooting, black. But typically, I get with a nude-ish, a brown nude or like a pink nude sometimes. Brownish french tip is nice.
Last 1. What was the happiest you felt in the by year?
That'south such a good one. What even happened last twelvemonth? Possibly when I flew to New Zealand to piece of work on a project and it was my first time out of the land solitary — I call back it was a squeamish menses of self growth. I don't know, I just learned a lot nigh myself because I had almost three full weeks of quarantine because they had their first large Covid outbreak in months at the hotel that I was quarantining in. Then I had to do overtime. Then I spent a lot of fourth dimension with myself and I feel like somebody would typically experience similar they were losing their mind, only I just got to watch more movies and write a lot. I love writing. I love to read and I don't — my schedule's been decorated recently and I don't necessarily e'er become that fourth dimension. So it was actually squeamish to just sit with myself and I felt very independent walking around New Zealand once I was out, and getting my groceries and going on adventures. I was driving on the other side of the road. It was prissy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photographs past Jonny Marlow. Styled by Enrique Melendez. Hair by Clayton Hawkins. Makeup by Allan Avendaño. Booking past Isabel Jones. Creative Director: Jenna Brillhart. Fine art Manager: Sarah Maiden. 3D Designer: Leana Macaya. Visuals Editor: Kelly Chiello.
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