Jenna Ortega couldn’t be more open about how tight her relationship with Winona Ryder is in a new interview with Vanity Fair. The young actress will take the lead in the most anticipated sequel to Beetlejuice, playing Astrid, the daughter of Lydia Deetz—an iconic role played by Ryder.
Ortega said she thought Ryder was “the coolest ever,” so playing her daughter was a different matter altogether. “It was exciting and paralyzing to navigate normal teenage-parent conflicts with her,” Ortega admitted. “I needed to balance my genuine respect for her with Astrid’s rebellious nature.”
Jenna Ortega to Vanity Fair on her bond with Winona Ryder:
“I feel like if you locked Winona and I in a blacked-out room… we could talk for hours, no touching of the phones. Just eye contact, in a dream.” PIC.TWITTER.COM/SUGVTKSIRE
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) AUGUST 6, 2024
The actress pointed out the true core of the creative Astrid-Lydia relationship in this movie: “Lydia has evolved over the first film. There’s a big difference, and with Astrid, a new color she gets to be with, so for me, I had to plunge into playing this teenager; which is bratty and rebellious, yet in some weird way, reverent of her parent’s history.”
Describing Astrid, Ortega said that her character has a “unique weirdness” different from Lydia’s but still peculiar enough to be in step with the quirkiness of the film. “Astrid is different from Lydia, but she has her own brand of weirdness,” she noted. This is coupled with a bit of a rebellious spirit and the weight of her mother’s legacy—making Astrid a multi-dimensional and interesting character.
Ortega said she enjoyed especially bringing out Astrid’s rebellious side, a trait that caused her many disagreements with her on-screen mother. “It’s really been fun to do things that are kind of just normal teenage-parent conflicts with someone that I really, really look up to,” she said.
A sequel to Beetlejuice is rife with opportunities for further exploration into Lydia’s life from the original film, with Astrid representing added depth. Jenna Ortega will add a new dimension to this endearing franchise in her portrayal, nailing the nirvana of teenage rebellion re done in a way that feels really true to the offbeat spirit of the original.
