Jenna Ortega Reveals She Nearly Quit Acting Before Landing This Role

Jenna Ortega is looking back at almost stepping away from acting.

While appearing on the Wednesday (April 8) episode of the Big Bro With Kid Cudi podcast, the 23-year-old Emmy-nominated actress opened up about a crossroads in her acting career before landing the role of Ellie Alves in the second season You, which aired in 2019.

Keep reading to find out more…“I didn’t know what else I was gonna do. I’ve never really considered anything else, more so recently, just out of sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience,” Jenna recalled of her ambitions.

“But when I was a teenager, I’d gotten off of 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,” she 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] ‘it was a good run’ sort of thing. We had talked about it for a few months with my team.”

Landing the role on You helped reignite Jenna‘s love for acting.

“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,” she said. “I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.’”

In an interview from August 2025, Jenna revealed what “terrifies” her about being young in Hollywood.