Hollywood’s Go-to Goth Girl: Everything to Know About Jenna Ortega, Star of 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'

The new Beetlejuice movie, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, coming to theaters September 6, is undoubtedly one of this year’s most highly anticipated releases. Ever since the original horror comedy hit the screen back in 1988, there’s been talk of a potential sequel, and now, over 30 years later, it’s finally happening — and unlike many sequels, the original director, Tim Burton, and stars Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and Beetlejuice himself, Michael Keaton, are all back for the spooky fun. 

While fans are excited to see the original stars, there’s also a lot of buzz around a new face in the cast. Jenna Ortega plays Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Winona Ryder’s character, Lydia Deetz — and while Ryder’s teen goth character from the original film casts a long shadow, the young actress is set to be the angsty teen icon for a new generation. Here’s what to know about Ortega and her role in the delightfully twisted new film.

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Jenna Ortega is a scream queen

At just 21, Ortega has already racked up dozens of credits. She had one of her first roles playing the younger version of the title character in Jane the Virgin and became a Disney Channel star with the show Stuck in the Middle, which ran from 2016 to 2018. 

After those early performances, she established herself as a scream queen with her roles in the two most recent films in the Scream franchise and the 2022 horror movie X. 

Ortega also plays the original goth girl, Wednesday Addams, in the popular Netflix series Wednesday. Tim Burton executive produced the series, which returns for its second season in 2025, and directed a number of episodes. 

Working together on Wednesday led Burton to cast Ortega in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as he said the show “reenergized” him and credited Ortega as a source of inspiration. As he put it, “Working with her and just thinking about the Lydia character and what happened to her 35 years later, and thinking about my own life, about what happened to get kids or relationships. It just became a very simple, emotional movie. It’s like a weird family movie, you know? It was never [about making] a big sequel for money or anything like that. I just wanted to make this for very personal reasons.”

Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder bonded during filming

Ortega didn’t just strike up a meaningful connection with Burton, she also bonded with her onscreen mom. The original Beetlejuice was one of the movies that made Winona Ryder the Gen X teen queen, and audiences can’t wait to see her reprise the role of Lydia Deetz as an adult. 

Ortega admitted that she was a bit intimidated by working with Ryder and the other stars at first, saying, “I was joining a team of giants, and people who were so special and talented at what they do, [so] I just kind of tried to mind my business in the corner,” but she soon got over her anxieties and worked hard to differentiate her character, describing her as having “a bit more trauma and resentment towards the world.”

Ortega and Ryder ended up bonding on set. Ortega told The New York Times, “She was so warm and welcoming and kind and inviting right from the jump, and I couldn’t be more grateful. It was at a time where my career was taking a different turn, and I didn’t realize that I needed that from somebody who could relate, but I did. The way Winona and I got along was quite weird. It was like we were reading each other’s minds a little bit.”

The warm and fuzzy feelings were mutual. As Ryder said in a Screen Rant interview, “I don't think I've ever bonded with someone like I did with Jenna. It was insane. And it did feel a lot like I was talking to a younger version of myself, but she's just like a thousand times cooler. Because we both have the same almost religious reverence for film. She is a cinephile, and we just can talk movies for years. We just bonded so intensely, and that was incredibly helpful.”

Given her many horror credits and her bond with both Tim Burton and Winona Ryder, we can’t wait to see Jenna Ortega play Lydia Deetz’s daughter.

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