Jenna Ortega breaks down in tears talking about social media anxiety: ‘You’re thrown to the dogs’

‘Social media, what it does to anyone our age... it’s such a comparing game,’ said the ‘Wednesday’ star

Wednesday star Jenna Ortega became teared up while talking to fellow actor Elle Fanning about the toxicity of social media.

The 20-year-old actor appeared with Fanning, 25, as part of Variety’s “Actors-on-Actors” series on Wednesday (7 June) for a wide-ranging chat about their careers.

Ortega told the star of The Great that there was a “very obvious shift in my life” after Wednesday came out on Netflix, in terms of her social media following.

The streaming giant’s Addams Family adaptation was one of the biggest shows of 2022, garnering over a billion total hours viewed within its first month.

“Social media, what it does to anyone our age, it’s such a comparing game,” Ortega said. “It influences bandwagon mentality. It’s very manipulative.”

Ortega said she now feels nervous to post anything in case a joke she makes is misinterpreted.

“They see your vulnerability and twist it in a way that you don’t always expect,” she said, breaking down in tears. “It’s so strange. Sorry, I didn’t mean to do this.

“It’s such a hard thing to balance. Because how do you be honest without jeopardising your own health and safety? It’s very easy to feel almost out of control.”

Jenna Ortega in Variety’s ‘Actors on Actors’ series (Variety)

Last month, Fanning revealed she was rejected from a big franchise film over her Instagram follower count.

“That’s something I firmly don’t believe in, for not getting a part,” she said.

In another conversation with Ortega and other female stars for The Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable series this week, Fanning also shared that she was once turned down for a role after being deemed “unf***able”.

“I was 16 years old, and a person said, ‘Oh, she didn’t get the father-daughter road trip comedy because she’s unf***able,’” she said.