Wednesday made Jenna Ortega a worldwide star before the age of 20, but she is basing her career more on interesting choices than fame.

There is something slightly strange about Jenna Ortega’s relationship with fame.

On the one hand, she is now one of the most recognizable young actors in the world, having transformed Wednesday Addams into a global phenomenon and followed the hit show with a succession of decidedly unconventional film roles. On the other, she has spent the past few years doing almost everything possible to make her private life less visible—and in a way, you’ve got to respect her for both of those perspectives.

The difference between the 20-year-old who sat down to discuss the first season of Wednesday and the one returning to the role for season three is striking. Back then, Ortega was still discovering what it meant to be famous. Now she has experienced the less attractive side of it too, including the relentless scrutiny that comes with being spotted everywhere she goes. She has spoken about buying a flip phone because social media was becoming overwhelming, and about wanting to travel somewhere alone simply to get away from the noise.

Professionally, however, she has gone in precisely the opposite direction. She has taken on greater creative responsibility for Wednesday, returning as an executive producer for last year’s second season, while working with Tim Burton again on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and exploring very different territory in Death of a Unicorn, Hurry Up Tomorrow and Taika Waititi’s forthcoming adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.

And then there is Wednesday herself. Season two has already taken the character into darker territory, while production on a third season is now underway near Dublin, with a considerably expanded cast and even the suggestion of a Paris detour.

For Ortega, though, the real story is no longer simply about playing the world’s most famous teenage goth. It is about deciding what she wants to do with the attention that came with her.

When you first played Wednesday, you had only just been introduced to this extraordinary level of fame. How different is your relationship with her now?
It’s completely different because I’ve changed. I think the first time around I was so focused on trying to get her right that I didn’t really have time to think about what was happening around me. We were filming for months, I was living in Romania, I was exhausted most of the time and then suddenly the show came out and everything became very loud.

Coming back for season two, I knew exactly what that world was. I knew what the character sounded like, how she moved, what she would and wouldn’t tolerate, so there was a little more freedom. I could actually start asking questions about the story rather than just worrying about whether I was doing a good job.

And I’m much more comfortable disagreeing now. That’s probably the biggest change. When you’re younger, somebody gives you a note and you think, ‘OK, that’s the note, I’ll do it.’ Now I’ll ask why. Sometimes I’ll still do exactly what they’ve suggested, but I want to understand it first.

You also became an executive producer on the show. Was that something you had wanted from the beginning?
Absolutely. I actually asked about it when we were making the first season and it didn’t happen, which was probably for the best because, in hindsight, I had no idea what I was doing [laughs]. I was 18 and had never produced a television show in my life.

But I knew I wanted to have some kind of voice. I remember being in meetings and having ideas about Wednesday or the tone of a scene and thinking, ‘I really hope somebody is listening to this.’ By the second season I had a much better understanding of how a production works, so it felt like the right time to take on more responsibility.

It’s also nice because you don’t want to be the actor who turns up, says the lines and goes home. If you’re going to spend that much of your life with a character, you care about what happens to them. You become protective of the world.

Has Tim Burton’s influence on you changed since your first meeting?
I think what’s funny is that the first time I met Tim I was covered in fake blood. I was in New Zealand filming X, I’d been screaming for hours, and I had this horrible prosthetic on my face. I hadn’t slept properly and then suddenly I was on Zoom talking to Tim Burton. I remember thinking, ‘This is probably not how I’m supposed to meet Tim Burton.’

Then, when we were talking about the second season, I went to his house and that was a completely different experience. You walk in and there’s this huge throne from Alice in Wonderland, there are jars of eyeballs and all these strange little creatures around the place. Tim carries these little figurines in his pockets. He’s exactly the person you imagine him to be, but he’d also incredibly gentle. He has this ability to make you feel that weirdness is completely normal. I think that’s been very good for me.

You’ve also worked with him on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. You apparently read the script in the car almost immediately after he gave it to you.
I did [laughs]. He basically handed me the script and I drove away, and about 15 minutes later I pulled over because I couldn’t wait any longer. I was on the Pacific Coast Highway, so I stopped somewhere by the ocean and just started reading.

I remember thinking, ‘Oh, they’ve actually done this.’ It felt like such a strange opportunity because you’re dealing with something that people have this enormous affection for, and then you’re suddenly the new person walking into that world. I was terrified, but in a really good way.

And working with Winona [Ryder] was probably one of the most special parts of it. I’ve admired her for so long that the first few days I was trying very hard not to behave like a complete fan. She was incredibly kind to me, though. She made me feel like I belonged there

You’ve become associated with dark material, but you actually had a childhood fear of Beetlejuice, didn’t you?
Yes! I had recurring nightmares about him. I think I was 8 or 9 when I first saw it, and at that age I was scared of absolutely everything. The funny thing is that the thing that really frightened me wasn’t even Michael Keaton in the movie. Somebody had dressed up as Beetlejuice in a really bad Halloween costume and my brain decided that was the end of civilization.

I had this recurring dream where Beetlejuice would come around the banister of my bunk bed wearing a Superman cape and offering me grape juice [laughs]. It’s such a bizarre image now, but at the time it was terrifying.

So when Tim handed me the Beetlejuice script years later, there was definitely a little part of me thinking, ‘Well, this is coming full circle.’

You’ve deliberately moved beyond horror too, particularly with Klara and the Sun. What attracted you to playing an artificial friend?
It was completely different from anything I’d done. That’s what attracted me. Klara is an artificial friend, so she experiences the world almost like a child. She doesn’t understand things in the way that we do. There were scenes where I had to look at something completely ordinary and react as though I’d never seen it before.

That sounds simple until you’re actually doing it. You realize how much of acting is based on things you’ve already experienced. With Klara, I had to take a lot of that away.

And then you’ve got Taika Waititi directing it, Kazuo Ishiguro’s story underneath it and Amy Adams opposite you. It was one of those jobs where I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to learn something here.’ That’s what I’m looking for now.

Is that the biggest difference between the Jenna who first made Wednesday and the Jenna we see today—being more selective?
I think so. I used to say yes because something sounded exciting, and now I want to know why I’m doing it.

I went through a period where I was working constantly and I loved it, but eventually you realize that if you’re always moving from one set to another, you don’t have time to process anything. I wanted to take a breath and figure out what actually interested me.

That’s why I’ve enjoyed doing things that are slightly uncomfortable. I don’t want every character to be a variation of Wednesday. That would be easy, but it wouldn’t be very interesting for me.

You’ve also become much more private. You even bought a flip phone because of your relationship with social media.
I did. I had a really difficult relationship with social media for a while. I felt like I was constantly consuming information and constantly aware of what people thought about me, and I didn’t like what that was doing to my brain.

So I bought a flip phone. It was great [laughs]. It was also completely impractical because suddenly nobody could send me anything and I couldn’t do half the things I needed to do for work.

But there was something really nice about not having that constant little machine in my pocket telling me what everybody else was doing. I’ve tried to find a balance now rather than completely disappear.

You’re heading towards your mid-20s now, but you’ve been working since you were a child. Do you ever think about the younger Jenna and what she was missing out on?
Sometimes. I don’t want to romanticize being a child actor because there were definitely moments when I was exhausted or felt like I had to be more responsible than I should have been.

I’’ve talked about this recently, but there were days when I wouldn’t eat or drink on set because I didn’t want to be the person who caused a delay. I thought if I needed to go to the bathroom or needed a break, somebody else would have to wait for me. Looking back, that makes me really sad because I was a kid. I should have just said I was hungry.

You learn those things eventually. Now I’m much better at listening to myself and saying, ‘I need five minutes.’ It sounds ridiculous, but that’s actually a big thing for me.

And now you’re heading into another chapter of Wednesday, with season three already in production. Does it ever feel strange that the character has become so inseparable from you?
It does, but I’ve made peace with it.

She changed my life. I can’t pretend otherwise. There are children who have grown up watching Wednesday and people come up to me and tell me that the character made them feel less strange or more comfortable with themselves. That’s incredibly meaningful.

But I’m also excited about the fact that Jenna gets to exist outside of Wednesday. I’m still figuring out what that means. I’m trying different things, reading plays between jobs, meeting filmmakers I admire, doing things that scare me a little bit. I don’t want to know exactly what the next 10 years look like.

If I did, I’d probably get bored. And honestly, I think Wednesday would probably be disappointed in me if I stopped being curious.

Finally, your sense of fairness and equality has seen you head up or contribute to a number of charitable and philanthropic initiatives.
I just feel we are in an era of tension and confusion where equality and justice is concerned. There is so much going on, so many agendas, so much bias, that it can be difficult to read into the whole thing at times.

When I try to lend my influence to something it must be on a very personal, local level. I don’t want to get involved in the big politics.

My parents are from Mexico and Puerto Rico so they understand the idea of focusing on themselves and building their own life, as they did in America, rather than looking at big change. In the same way I like to embrace projects on a level where you can see real change to people or communities. Everything above that is just a bit too vague for me.

You’re also a big advocate of looking after yourself, as well as others.
There’s no point looking after others if you haven’t first looked after yourself.

I think diet is so vitally important, as well as the things you expose your skin to. On a physical level I am always trying to keep myself happy, healthy and alert. For me, that can provide me with the boost to my mental health when something comes along that I need to confront.

It’s like a headstart to life’s challenges, for me.