'It gets ugly! Jenna Ortega speaks out on the impact social media has on her career
Jenna Ortega has an "ugly" relationship with social media and is now "nervous" to post anything to her millions of followers in cast it gets misinterpreted.
The 20-year-old actress - who currently boasts more than 40 million followers on Instagram - shot to fame as a child actress on Disney Channel before achieving further success when she was cast in the title role of Netflix hit 'Wednesday' and explained that she has been encouraged to build her social media exposure for a number of years for the benefit of her caeer.
Asked about her relationship with social media, she told fellow actress Elle Fanning during a chat for Variety: "It gets ugly. When I was younger, they would take us to media training — Disney 101 or something like that — where they would say, 'You’re going to post three times a day. This is how you build followers, engage, and promote our show.” You could go into an audition or meeting, and it was 'How many followers do you have?'"
The 'Scream' star went on to add that even when she was auditioning for her part in Netflix's spin-off of 'The Addams Family' her social media presence came into question and now following the success of the show can easily find herself in "trouble" over anything she chooses to publish.
She said: "Even after shooting 'Wednesday', when I was auditioning, they would come to my team: 'We like her, but we just don’t know if she has enough of a name.' And social media, what it does to anyone our age, it’s such a comparing game. It influences bandwagon mentality. It’s very manipulative. After the show, I’m really nervous to post or even say anything on there or even be myself because I feel like [it could be misinterpreted] I naturally tend to be sarcastic or dry, it’s very easy for me to find myself in trouble. I want people to be able to get to know the people behind the camera and realize that people should never be put on a pedestal. And the more I’ve been exposed to the world, people prey on that and take advantage of that. They see your vulnerability and twist it in a way that you don’t always expect. It’s so strange."
