Jenna Ortega Has Plans to Direct a Script She’s Worked on for 10 Years

Jenna Ortega is looking forward to spending more time behind the camera.

While Ortega was promoting The Weeknd‘s new film, Hurry Up Tomorrow, she and the singer spoke about her own desire to direct to V Magazine, which she previously told The Hollywood Reporter was her hope for her future back in 2018.

The Weeknd asked Ortega if she has a desire to tell her own stories and if she was working on anything, to which she said, “I have a script that I’ve known that I was going to make for almost 10 years. It’s weird because it’s something that I thought of when I was younger and when I first started out in this field, and it’s only now that I’m actually starting to take the steps to get it made, which is really interesting.”

The Scream actress, who has a producing credit on Wednesday season two, explained how “learning how to produce and being a part of projects in that way has informed me so much. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that I wasn’t aware of. I’m just putting the puzzle pieces together in my head. So I think I needed a few years of that under my belt to understand the order of doing things,” she said. “Everything that I’ve done in my career, I feel like there’s a reason why I didn’t make this story at an earlier time, but I’m really excited about it. Then there are a couple of other things I’m trying to develop right now, but it’s strictly off of being inspired by another actor or a writer, characters that I’ve never really gotten the opportunity to play before.”

When asked if it would be tough to make something that she’d also be starring in, Ortega responded: “This one in particular, I see myself in it, but I really want to direct. That’s probably the main thing that I want to do. I see that for myself. I just feel that’s the way my brain wants to work and think, and that’s how I even view my acting sometimes.”

She continued, “I don’t want to be in the things that I create in the future, but starting out, because I’ve created more leverage for myself with a name as an actor, I may as well use that as a stepping stone.”