As many have discovered in recent years, being a child actor isn't always as fun as one might expect. It's no easy feat for pre-teens or even younger to navigate such a dangerous environment, with Hollywood rife with traps that even adult talent can fall prey to. Add to that the online hate that has permeated the entertainment industry in recent decades, and it's easy to see how 21-year-old rising star Jenna Ortega has made it through relatively unscathed. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ortega opened up about the inappropriate direct messages she received while starring in “Jane the Virgin” at age 12, as well as AI-generated pornographic images of her.
“I hate AI because it has the potential to be used for incredible things. I think I saw the other day that artificial intelligence can detect breast cancer four years before it progresses. That's amazing, let's just leave it at that,” Ortega said. “Was I 14 and I made a Twitter account because I had to, and I loved looking at salacious edited content of myself as a child? No. It's horrifying. It's corrupting. It's wrong.”
When asked to elaborate further, Ortega said, “One of the first direct messages I ever opened on my own when I was 12 was an unsolicited photo of a man's genitals, and that was just the beginning of what was to come.”
The “Wednesday” star went on to explain that she once had a Twitter account because it was expected to be a way to build her “image,” but she was forced to delete it due to the proliferation of “ridiculous images” as her stardom rose.
“It was nasty, it made me feel bad, it made me uncomfortable,” Ortega told The New York Times. “Anyway, that's why I deleted it, because there was nothing I could say without seeing that stuff. So I woke up one day and I was like, 'Oh, I don't need this anymore,' so I deleted it.”
Ortega will next be seen in the upcoming legendary sequel, Beetlejuice, from Wednesday's director Tim Burton and co-starring original cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara, as well as newcomers Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci.
