JENNA ORTEGA DESCRIBES EFFECT OF DISNEY CHANNEL MEDIA TRAINING

Jenna Ortega said media training she received while working on Disney Channel still affects how she responds to fans. Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ortega said she was taught that meeting her might be a unique moment in a fan’s life. “That has never left me,” she said. Ortega said she now tries to give herself more freedom to set boundaries when people approach her in public. She said she makes decisions about those encounters according to the situation.

Ortega said she does not always feel safe stopping for a photograph, particularly when an adult stranger approaches her. She said she feels more comfortable with some encounters involving children. Fans’ behaviour also varies, she said, with some interactions kind and others embarrassing, aggressive or mean. “It’s hard to know what the balance is,” Ortega said. She described the instruction she received as a child as pressure to make each encounter meaningful for the person meeting her.

Ortega has also spoken about finding it difficult to ask for food or water while working as a child actor. In August, she said she sometimes went all day without eating or drinking because she did not want to get in anyone’s way. “Maybe that was my mistake, was not actually looking after myself,” she said. On the podcast, Ortega said she was trying to give herself grace as she worked on her boundaries. “I do what I can,” she said of her interactions with fans.