Jenna Ortega Was In Tears While Getting Real About Enduring Toxic Social Media Attacks

'Wednesday' star Jenna Ortega grew surprisingly emotional while discussing the darker side of fame and social media.

Jenna Ortega’s life as the star of a slam-dunk Netflix franchise with more roles popping up every day may not be relatable. However, it’s perfectly easy to understand why she feels uneasy about social media. And she didn’t even mention her mom shading her daughter’s smoking with memes, but that probably didn’t help matters.

Ortega experienced quite a bit of backlash earlier this year, and that included pushback from producer Steven DeKnight, for her “entitled” and “toxic” remarks regarding issues she had with the Wednesday scripts. DeKnight later clarified that his remarks “were about breaking the trust that we all have on set and during the production process that our creative differences will stay in the family.” Still, this was one of a few incidents that has made social media difficult for Ortega to endure, and the actress — who doesn’t even blink on Wednesday while maintaining stoicism — began crying while describing (to Elle Fanning for Variety) how “nervous” she is to post anything anymore.

“Because I naturally tend to be sarcastic or dry, it’s very easy for me to find myself in trouble. I want people to be able to get to know the people behind the camera and realize that people should never be put on a pedestal. And the more I’ve been exposed to the world, people prey on that and take advantage of that. They see your vulnerability and twist it in a way that you don’t always expect. [Starts to cry] It’s so strange. Sorry, I didn’t mean to do this.”

Ortega then added, “It’s such a hard thing to balance. Because how do you be honest without jeopardizing your own health and safety? It’s very easy to feel almost out of control.” Yeah, it’s time to step away from Twitter and Instagram because those platforms appear to grow more uncivilized all the time. Might I suggest some meditation instead? Or yoga. Yoga is good.

(Via Variety)