Jenna Ortega Reveals She Went All Day Without Food or Water as a Child Actor: "I Didn't Want to Be in the Way"
Jenna Ortega has revealed that as a child actor she would sometimes go an entire day on set without eating or drinking, because she did not want to inconvenience anyone around her.
The 23-year-old star of Wednesday and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice made the disclosure in an interview for Harper's Bazaar's "How I Got Here" video series, published on 11 August 2026. Speaking about her early years in the industry, Ortega said she pushed herself to the point of neglecting basic needs. "I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody," she said, according to Variety's reporting on 12 August 2026.
When asked to reflect on what she might consider a mistake from her time as a child actor, Ortega pointed to the same pattern. Her answer, she said, was "not actually looking after myself" (Variety).
Ortega's career began unusually early. She was seven years old when she first told her parents she wanted to be an actor. They laughed. But Ortega described herself as stubborn, and said she simply never stopped pushing after that first conversation — a trait she credits as the driving force behind her entire career (Variety).
Her big break came in 2016, when she was 13, headlining the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle. Before that, she had already built a list of TV credits including Richie Rich, Jane the Virgin, You, and the animated Elena of Avalor — a resume that placed her firmly in the category of working child actors before she was old enough to drive (Variety).
Asked about the long-standing stigmas surrounding child stars in Hollywood, Ortega did not dismiss them. "Is it wrong to say that a lot of them are true?" she said. "And do with that what you will" (Variety).
Her reflections arrive alongside a wider period of public introspection. Esquire published a feature interview with Ortega on 11 August 2026 — titled "Jenna Ortega on Fame, Failure, and 'Wednesday' Season 3" — in which she discusses the Netflix hit, her experiences with fame, career setbacks, and the roles she is choosing next (Esquire).
For anyone who has followed Ortega's rise from Disney Channel lead to one of the most recognisable young actors working today, the admissions put a sharper edge on what that trajectory looked like behind the scenes. The performer who headlined a streaming phenomenon was, by her own account, a child who skipped meals so she would not slow anyone down.
Ortega did not frame the disclosure as a complaint. She was asked, and she answered — plainly, and without dressing it up.
