Imagine Jenna Ortega in Hereditary. Creepy, right? Also… almost real.
The Wednesday star just dropped a surprising confession while chatting with Kid Cudi on his podcast – she auditioned for Ari Aster’s now-iconic horror film when she was just 12.
“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 said.
She did not even have the full script – just a couple of mysterious pages.
“I didn’t know what I was looking at… it was like two pages of just ominous words that as a 12-year-old went over the head,” she explained. Still, something clicked: “I feel like this is an important movie.”
She was not wrong.
The role eventually went to Milly Shapiro, while Toni Collette led the film – and horror history was made.
Watching it later in theaters, Ortega had a full-circle moment: “This is the one that I said was going to be in.”
Rejection, though? Never her villain origin story. “I never really question it… what’s meant to be mine will come to me.”
In fact, she almost quit acting altogether – until YOU happened. On set, one experience, and suddenly: “Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.”
Fast forward, she’s now booked, busy… and finally learning how to cook.
Hollywood almost lost her. Imagine that horror story.
