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Jenna Ortega has split fans as she shared her enthusiasm for representing “weird” people.
The 21-year-old actor has played a spate of interesting and quirky roles, most notably Wednesday Addams in record-breaking Netflix seriesWednesday.
She plays antisocial teenager Astrid Deetz, in the new Beetlejuice sequel directed by Tim Burton, and starred as Cairo Sweet in contentious film Miller’s Girl, about a student and teacher in a complex romantic relationship.
Ortega told the BBC that she is drawn to roles that are, “People who feel a little bit weird or feel like they stick out a little bit more in a crowd, or it’s hard for them to relate to people.”
She added, “I think it’s important to see people in these fields, in these worlds, in these environments own it and take charge, and that’s really exciting for me. Especially for people who haven’t really seen anything like this before.”
Although her comments appeared well-intentioned it caused some to take offence at her calling people “weird”.
“The irony and catch 22 of this entire post is wild. WILD. There is no ‘weird’. There is no ‘normal’,” one person wrote.
“There is only belief and belief is so tainted that Ms Ortega has to say she’s paving a way for people who are perfectly fine as is, but mainstream media may claim otherwise. But then, here is mainstream media saying it’s all accepted.”
“You are weird if you [are] unattractive and quirky if you are attractive,” wrote another, as some accused Ortega of being a “mega rich Hollywood star trading on weird”.
Some were happy for Ortega to represent them as they wrote, “As a weird person myself, I approve Jenna endorsing us”.
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Another added that the representation of eccentric and unconventional characters is much deeper and doesn’t always translate past TV and movie screens.
“But it annoys me because in many programmes like this many viewers like the ‘weird character’, whereas in real life that is very different and [they] tend to bully or harm the person,” commented one person.
Others thought the star was too cool to be weird as they wrote, “She’s obviously not one of the weird kids and has probably never struggled with this to be able to ‘represent’ anyone,” although they did not elaborate on their reasoning.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is out in cinemas now
