Why is Jenna Ortega the representative of GenZs?

She is one of the most influential young actresses these days despite emerging from a saturated industry, where girls of same or younger age are making their way to the limelight, Ortega was still able to let the spotlight gravitate towards her with no effort. What makes her unique and what makes her the literal embodiment of the GenZers?

Jenna Ortega is a 20 yr old actress who started her career as a child actress as the young Jane in Jane the Virgin. She had her breakthrough like other present celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Zendaya and Olivia Rodrigo on Disney Channel, where Ortega starred as Harley Diaz in the series “Stuck in the middle” (2016-2018). Aside from different series appearances in different shows from Netflix (You and Yes day), her fame skyrocketed when she starred as the iconic Wednesday Addams from the renowned The Addams Family in the Netflix horror-comedy series “Wednesday”, directed by Tim Burton. Which is the current talk of the town since its premiere last November of 2022 (Wikipedia). 

Dry humor

Gen Zs are known for their dry, sometimes sardonic humor that people of the older generation often feel the need for a moment to distinguish how and what to react: whether to cringe, to laugh or to run. 

In an interview by the WIRED, Jenna revealed that she used to dissect little insects when she was younger. A sentence which could ring the ears of True Crime enthusiasts once they hear it. And in another interview with the other casts Luis Guzmán and Gwendoline Christie, she calls the latter “my woman”. This 20 second stuttering and expressing of admiration had the interviewer and the other people in the studio flabbergasted. Out of all this however, my favorite was from a Wednesday behind the scenes, when she shared “If you growl at it (airplane flying above) hard enough, it’ll go away” she added “I try that on people”. 

Snowflakes 

“Snowflakes” are often associated with Gen Zers for being “soft” and “unwilling to grow up” as some say. Often seen as a bad thing, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Gen Zers are lazy but rather are only being compared to the older generations. So what if they don’t rush to everything adulthood? So what if a little small thing makes them smile? 

Jenna Ortega a 20 yr old young adult proves that after year 18, nothing changes when it comes to fun. In her several instagram stories during the filming of Wednesday, we can see how much she had fun with her casts on set, playing ‘Ninjas’ with her co-star Emma Myers who stars as Enid Sinclair and spinning on an office chair with Hunter Doohan who plays Tyler Galpin. Jenna is known for goofing around and making the set lively as possible as approved by her co-stars. All these despite the laborious training she had to go through for the role such as fencing, and playing the cello. 

 

(Source: POPSugar)

Authenticity

According to studies, GenZers are known for their openness and authenticity that employers revere. They rarely sugarcoat things, only when necessary. And what they want they express with no second thought. If they see a dog on the street…guaranteed, they will pet it. (I could give better examples but that’s what you get)

With the star, her mouth will never hesitate telling cute and funny anecdotes which most actresses would want to just bury in the past, protecting their reputation. This personality however, exhibits her authenticity and being down to earth. In the same interview with WIRED, Jenna exposed her height in detail adding “5’1…but much less” often some, even non-celebrities, would give an estimate or just straight up lie if they’re not 6’ and above. In an interview where she was asked whether a style flashed on her screen is worth posting or ghosting, a red dress and a converse worn by Peyton Elizabeth Lee on Kim Possible movie red carpet, she answered ‘would’ and spontaneously she–and I quote “awkwardly flashed” her black converse on the screen. She doesn’t care. A trait GenZers also palpably exhibits throughout social media sites. 

Values flexibility 

GenZers have an eye to getting the job done, they are collaborative and flexible, they can adapt to all things as they are known to be explorative, trying out one thing and then another. They don’t want to be that person at the back, they want to be in the front, doing and experiencing the work. 

Jenna has been acting since she was a child begging her mom to acknowledge her dream to be an actress. The actress had tried different genres in her entire career even though she’s still budding in her adulthood years. She played in a comedy-drama series “Jane the Virgin”, a thriller series called “You” received critical recognition for her performance in the teen drama movie “The Fallout”, and also to slasher horror film “X” and “Scream” and to the latest series “Wednesday” a horror-comedy series. This line up of previous acting gigs of different genres showcases her flexibility as an actress, add the fact that she does most of the stunts needed for her role, which she revealed brought anxiety to their stunt directors. 

Strives for diversity and representation

As the 21st century, Globalization and Modernization’s current theme is diversity and cultural appreciation, these GenZers have acquired this sense from an early age, learning about people and other cultures. With the use of social media sites, celebrities, influencers, politicians have done their part to spread the concept and importance of awareness towards diversity, especially the younger generation. 

Being born in the year 2002, as a part of the GenZers, Ortega hasn’t failed to use her platform to spread awareness. In an interview by Netflix, for her show “Wednesday” she expressed her gratitude for having the chance to represent the Latin community by portraying Wednesday Addams as a Latina, from a Latin family. From the interview previously mentioned, she shared how she showed her appreciation for the culture of the Maori people in New Zealand where they filmed for 3 months for the movie “X”. 

Aside from this, in most of her interviews she had constantly conveyed her openness to the LGBTQ+ community, even shipping her character “Wednesday'' with Emma Myers’ character “Enid Sinclair”, most importantly is her queer role as “Vada Cavell” in “The Fallout”. In relation to this, as a young actress she also greatly encouraged women’s power as in one interview from the Netflix premiere of “Wednesday” when asked about the ship “Wenclair” (Wednesday Addams and Enid Sinclair’s pairing) she answered “people love seeing powerful women with powerful women”. 

Truly, talented and spectacular Jenna Ortega is slowly taking over Hollywood, and soon the whole industry is filled with GenZers, and with Jenna as the leading face of the generation, it is a much awaited new era of emerging artists. Can’t wait to see what the future with talented young artists looks like. 

Which GenZ trait do you think you have? Which other artists do you think also exhibit the GenZ traits? Comment down below! 

That is all! Thank you for reading!