Do we like Jenna Ortega?
Our score: 8 out of 10. She has walked away from a big franchise over a co-star's treatment and spoken up for immigrants and civilians, with nothing harmful of her own turning up.
Ortega came up through the grind: small parts in CSI: NY and Iron Man 3, a run on Stuck in the Middle and Jane the Virgin, then The Fallout, Scream and Wednesday. She's said she came into the industry as an outsider and learned to be wary of stage parents and producers who didn't have her interests at heart. That wariness explains a lot about how she handles the business now.
The big stoush was Scream 7. Her co-star Melissa Barrera was fired from the franchise over social media posts about Gaza, and Ortega left the film soon after. In a 2025 interview she said it had nothing to do with pay or scheduling and that with the Barrera situation the project was falling apart. Where you land on Barrera's posts is your call, but walking away from a franchise lead is a real cost, not a PR move.
On the harm check, nothing nasty of her own turned up. She's posted about immigration raids in Los Angeles, urging followers to stay angry and keep paying attention. She wrote about children killed in Gaza in 2024, and in January 2026 she called the lack of accountability after the Minneapolis shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE agents frightening. On LGBTQ+ issues PinkNews reports she's played queer-coded characters and answered fans who read Wednesday as gay by saying people want to see powerful women together, but that's thin and I found no specific statements on trans rights or climate. In 2024 she told Vanity Fair that chasing political correctness costs honesty, which is a take, not a slur.
Her recent and upcoming work is mainstream: Klara and the Sun with Taika Waititi, The Gallerist with Natalie Portman, a J.J. Abrams film at Warner Bros., and Wednesday on Netflix. Nothing in that slate leans on culture-war studios or the grievance circuit. Tabloid gossip about her private life exists, but it's tabloid territory and I've left it out.
On the good-person side, she's been open about the ugly side of child fame. She told the New York Times she left Twitter after receiving sexualised AI images of herself as a minor, calling the experience terrifying and wrong. Online accusers alleged in 2023 that her former Wednesday co-star Percy Hynes White behaved badly in his teens, and he called the claims a campaign of misinformation. Ortega has not been accused of anything herself, and she addressed his exit only briefly when asked.
So: would we support her? Yes. She has no court record, no accusations against her in the reporting I read, and a pattern of speaking up for others. The gap is that she's 24 and her public record on LGBTQ+ and trans rights is light, so keep watching, but nothing here gives anyone a reason to pull back.