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Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Jenna Ortega has opened up about her first encounter with Zendaya in a resurfaced clip from her childhood.
Ortega, 20, has recently become a household name after starring in the hugely popular Netflix series Wednesday.
But her breakthrough role came in 2016 when she played lead character Harley Diaz in the Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle, which followed a youngster who invents gadgets to deal with living in a large family.
In a resurfaced interview, a young Ortega praised another Disney star for being a strong ‘role model’ for other girls, saying the actor proved to be someone she ‘looked up to’ in her earlier career.
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Yep, Ortega was fangirling hard for Zendaya, who had her big break in Disney’s Shake It Up, which ran from 2010 to 2013.
In the clip, which was recently shared on Twitter, Ortega said: “She’s such a great role model for young girls.
“She works hard and she just seems incredibly sweet.”
Ortega continued: “I’ve actually met her before and she was sweet to me.
“I’ve only heard nice things about her. And she’s awesome, I love her.”
It’s not the first time the star has praised Zendaya, either, having also spoken about the Euphoria star in a 2018 with Just Jared Jr.
When asked to name a star who she’d love to become a close friend, she said: “She’s funny, cool, and a really good role model. I would wanna have a sleepover at her house, it looks dope! We could dance, eat ice cream, ya know. All the fun stuff."
These days, Ortega is known for her turn as Wednesday Addams, which was now been renewed for a second season on Netflix.
She recently admitted that the first season of the show was tough to put together - so tough that she 'didn't get any sleep'.
The star opened up about her experience at a Netflix-hosted Q&A panel in Hollywood on Thursday (9 February), when she described what her day-to-day life looked like as she played Wednesday in front of the cameras and took fencing and cello lessons behind the scenes to better portray the talented character.
Ortega said: “It was show up to set two hours early, do that 12-14 hour day, then go home and then get on a Zoom and have whatever lesson that I had. Or show up to my apartment, my cello teacher was already waiting for me."
The actor stated that it was 'constantly going', adding: "If you could, on a weekend, if we weren’t shooting the sixth day that week, it was ‘All right, well then, we’ll get your lessons in on that day.’”
Ortega said she 'did not get any sleep', continuing: "I pulled my hair out.
“There’s so many FaceTime calls that my dad answered of me hysterically crying.”
Ortega was determined not to let down any cellists watching the show as she played the instrument on camera, and noted the 'Paint it Black' cello sequence was particularly difficult to get her head around as she had to switch teachers when moving abroad, and try to depict a piece of music solo that was actually made for two people.
“I didn’t know where my hands were even supposed to go and then I had to make two cellos come out of one cello, which was ridiculous,” she explained.
In spite of her efforts to do as much work for Wednesday as possible, Ortega admitted that time constraints got in the way because 'Wednesday’s in pretty much every scene'.
“They had to start using stunt doubles or occasionally cello doubles if they didn’t have time to get hands, but I was very adamant about being as well prepared as possible because I wanted them to be able to use myself, because that’s so much more believable if you could see your face," she added.