Jenna Ortega Is Watching You

The star of Wednesday and Scream VI built her career on intense observation and obvious talent. Now she has to learn to be famous.

- By Hunter Harris. Photograped by Felix Cooper

"I'm definitely the actress who's like, 'More blood," Jenna Ortega deadpans. "If I'm going to speak up about anything, or put my two cents in about anything," she says, it would be that: Let a scene be as crimson as possible. Gore has always fascinated Ortega; she wanted to start acting, at all of six years old, because she watched a movie that scared her. It's fitting, then, that Ortega is Gen Z's reigning scream queen: The star of Scream VI commits to the bit.

This morning, though, it's the day after Friday the 13th, and there's no blood. Ortega and I are thumbing through crates of rock and disco records at Superior Elevation, a vintage record store in Brooklyn. Outside, the sidewalks are dusted with snow, and it is folklore degrees. Inside, the decor is artful-sparse, with dozens of crates of music-good, bad, old, older, very old-lining three rows of tables and a lot of floor space. Ortega lives in California, and doesn't make it to Brooklyn very often (she was in New York for the ELLE photo shoot). A few days before, she'd presented the award for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes; music, she says, is her preferred language. "I listen to absolutely anything. I know everyone says that," she says, "but sometimes I'll listen to stuff that I don't even think is good because I just need to understand."