She was 12, the script was brutal, and the role slipped away. Which decade-defining horror film almost had Jenna Ortega in its cast?
Before Wednesday turned her into a global fixture, Jenna Ortega had already brushed against another kind of on-screen terror. She says she auditioned at 12 for Ari Aster’s 2018 shocker Hereditary, a part she did not land and only later grasped after watching the film in theaters. Speaking on Kid Cudi’s podcast Big Bro, Ortega retraces that unsettling first encounter with a script that would become a modern horror landmark.
Jenna Ortega’s surprising audition story
Jenna Ortega, now widely recognized for her breakout turn in Netflix’s Wednesday, just shared a revealing footnote from her early years. On Kid Cudi’s podcast Big Bro (as reported by The Hollywood Reporter), she said she auditioned for Ari Aster’s Hereditary. She didn’t get the role, but the try shows how early she chased material that demanded nerve. It also hints at the taste that would shape her rapid rise.
Hereditary: redefining modern horror
Directed by Ari Aster and released in US theaters on June 8, 2018, Hereditary swiftly cemented itself as a modern horror landmark. The film follows a grieving family whose buried secrets curdle into something occult, turning domestic dread into full-body terror. Toni Collette delivers a blistering, career-best performance, with Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro deepening the unease. Distributed by A24 in the US, it became a word-of-mouth sensation, a movie people whispered about leaving the theater and argued over long after the lights came up.
A tough script for a 12-year-old
Ortega recalled getting just 2 pages of sides, packed with unsettling language that felt opaque to a kid. She didn’t fully grasp the script’s weight, yet sensed it mattered, a feeling that stuck with her. After seeing Hereditary in a packed auditorium, she realized how close she’d come to a film that would brand the decade’s horror conversation. The audition may have stung at the time, but it also widened her appetite for high-stakes storytelling.
A sign of things to come
That early swing reads like foreshadowing. Ortega has leaned into bold choices across horror and thriller terrain, from Ti West’s X to Scream VI, all while redefining a sardonic, emotionally precise presence in Wednesday. Each project asks more of her, and she tends to answer with sharper timing, cooler control and a knack for menace edged with empathy. She may have missed Hereditary, but the trajectory is clear: keep choosing the hard rooms, then make them hers.