Jenna Ortega Reveals the Role That Got Away: “Incredible Movie”

Jenna Ortega attends ‘The Gallerist’ premiere during the Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theater in Park City, Utah on Jan. 24, 2026. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

Jenna Ortega in Hereditary? It could’ve happened.

During an appearance on pal Kid Cudi’s new podcast, Big Bro, the 23-year-old Wednesday star revealed that she auditioned for Ari Aster’s horror film, released by A24 in January 2018. “I think I auditioned for Hereditary, which obviously wouldn’t have made any sense, especially for, like, my disposition as a kid, so I understood,” she tells Cudi, her friend since they starred together in Ti West’s slasher pic X opposite Mia Goth, Brittany Snow and Martin Henderson.

"STFU": 'Supergirl' Star Milly Alcock Just Proved Her Point About Fan Backlash

Business

Kid Cudi to Launch Digital Series 'Big Bro' With Debut Episode Featuring Kylie Jenner (Exclusive)

Ortega said that while she only received a select portion of the script she knew it would be impactful. “I didn’t know what I was looking at and they they gave us barely any sides. It was like two pages of just ominous words that as a 12-year-old went over the head,” she explained. “But I remember seeing it, looking at it, and thinking, I feel like this is an important movie, and then it was.”

Aster’s Hereditary, which he directed from his own script, centers on a family struggling to make sense of the mysterious occurrences that happen in the wake of the death of matriarch Ellen, played by Ann Dowd. The woman’s daughter, a miniature artist named Annie played by Toni Collette, begins to uncover disturbing secrets just as the family is thrown into personal tragedy when their 13-year-old daughter, Charlie, dies in a shocking car accident while her older brother is behind the wheel. Ortega auditioned to play the 13-year-old in a role that went to Milly Shapiro, while Alex Wolff played the older brother. It was a key part, too, as Charlie had a chilling presence on screen as he family grows increasingly concerned by her strange behavior.

“Then it came out, and we went to the theater,” Ortega recalls of seeing Hereditary back in 2018. “I sat up in my chair and I looked at my mom and I said, ‘This is the one that I said was going to be in.’ You know, we didn’t even realize that [is what we were seeing]. But incredible movie. It’s funny to think that I went in for that because again, I just didn’t make any sense for it.”

Kid Cudi: "I auditioned for Get Out. I was, [in] one of those situations where I read the script and I knew it was about to go." Jenna Ortega: "I auditioned for Hereditary … I remember seeing it, looking at it, and thinking, 'I feel like this is an important movie.'" Kid Cudi… pic.twitter.com/GfR0IWJz78
— Big Bro with Kid Cudi (@bigbrocudi) April 9, 2026

Ortega added that she’s always taken rejection really well. “I never really question it. I didn’t want to get in my head about that sort of thing and what’s meant to be mine will come to me or you know I’ll find somehow.”

Ortega’s chat with Cudi has generated a fair amount of headlines focused on the segment when she opened up about the time she almost quit acting altogether. The actress, who grew up in Palm Springs, California, broke out as a child star on such shows as Know it All Nina, Richie Rich and Stuck in the Middle. Then came a crossroads.

“I didn’t know what else I was gonna do,” Ortega told Cudi. “I’ve never really considered anything else, more so recently, just out of sake of curiosity and wanting another life experience. But when I was a teenager, I’d gotten off a children’s show, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had to prove myself and meet all these new casting directors who didn’t know who I was. It just felt like a good time to call it quits if I was going to.”

Jenna Ortega reveals she nearly quit acting before booking the TV show ‘You’ 👀 "It felt like a good time to call it quits. I was starting high school, it was a good run … Then I booked, the show 'You' & I was like, 'There's no way I could let this go.'" pic.twitter.com/jMxwM1Kit7
— Big Bro with Kid Cudi (@bigbrocudi) April 8, 2026

Ortega was just about to start high school and felt like it “was a good run” type thing. “We had talked about it for a few months with my team, and then, I think I booked that show You, and then I went on that set, and I loved it and had the best time,” Ortega said about the Netflix thriller series starring Penn Badgley as a serial killer. “I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.’”

She’s been working at a hectic clip ever since. But now Ortega has found herself in a rare space with months of consecutive downtime. “I was so scared. I was so scared,” she says of taking a break. “I remember the first few weeks I thought, ‘Okay, I don’t really know what to do with my hands. Maybe I should like pick up a hobby?’”

But now that her free time is winding down, Ortega said she feels so much better. “I learned so much about what I enjoy and what I don’t enjoy. I know how to entertain myself real well now, and I just got to do real domestic stuff that I was missing out on for a while, like cooking. I never got to cook because you’re living in a hotel room.”