Jenna Ortega on friendship with Winona Ryder: “We started talking one day on set and then never stopped”

19 August, 2024

Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder

Jenna Ortega has spoken about the close friendship that she struck up with Winona Ryder on the set of the upcoming film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The sequel to the 1988 cult classic is out in cinemas on September 4, and sees director Tim Burton and stars Michael Keaton, Ryder and Catherine O’Hara returning to the franchise alongside newcomers Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci.

Ortega plays the rebellious Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Ryder’s Lydia, as the Deetz clan return home to Winter River following the death of Charles Deetz. See the film’s trailer below.

The on-screen mother and daughter turned out to be fast friends in real life, as Ortega recently explained to Fandango.

“Obviously joining a sequel to something and it being so long since the original, I think I just wanted to put my head down and do the work and show up and be respectful and read my little book book off to the side,” Ortega said,.

“But I think Winona was so warm and so welcoming, as was Catherine [O’Hara], as was everybody else, that you almost didn’t have a choice but to become a part of the family, which I’m so grateful for because I think that in shooting and working together and Tim’s playful spirit, I felt like everything that we were doing felt like we were all in on the same joke or on the same page or had the same ideas.”

“It just felt like a free and collaborative space, but Winona and I — I swear we just started talking one day on set and then never stopped,” she continued. “You could find us in the same position four hours later never having moved. She’s the best.”

Ortega also recreated the viral “demure” TikTok trend from the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice set last week, alongside co-star Justin Theroux.

The actress mouths along to influencer Jools Lebron’s words, smirking as she says, “I don’t come to work with a green cut crease,” while pointing at the shrunken-headed green prosthetic figure sitting behind her.

In other Ortega news, the Wednesday star has recently been speaking about the issue of “political correctness” in Hollywood and how she feels it can “lack honesty”.

“The business that we work in is so touchy-feely,” she said. “Everybody wants to be politically correct, but I feel like, in doing that, we lose a lot of our humanity and integrity, because it lacks honesty.”

“I wish that we had a better sense of conversation. Imagine if everyone could say what they felt and not be judged for it and, if anything, it sparked some sort of debate, not an argument. Am I describing world peace?”

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