Jenna Ortega Thinks She Auditioned for Zendaya’s Role in ‘Dune’: “Everything Was Very Secret”

Jenna Ortega is pretty sure she auditioned for Zendaya‘s role in Dune. The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice actress said she was 15 when she went in for the interview.

“I think it was Chani, I think it was Zendaya’s,” Ortega recalled in a BuzzFeed interview. “But they weren’t saying that, everything was very secret.” 

Ortega added that she remembers being “really excited” because Denis Villeneuve “is one of my favorite filmmakers.”

Ortega is now 21, which would date her potential Dune audition as six years old. In addition to Zendaya, the critically acclaimed first installment of the sci-fi series went on to also star Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard and Dave Bautista. Dune: Part Two released earlier this year.

Elsewhere in the interview, Ortega spoke about her experiences filming Netflix’s Wednesday with legendary director Tim Burton. Burton also directed the upcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — the sequel to his 1988 film Beetlejuice — in which Ortega stars as Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia.

“On Wednesday we were just trying to get to know each other a bit,” Ortega said of her relationship to Burton. “On Beetlejuice … he seemed a lot more playful and I think it actually helped our relationship a lot … it was just a very joyous, happy shoot.” 

Ryder reprises her role for the movie, along with Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara. “Winona was so welcoming,” Ortega said. “I feel really, really lucky to have been able to create such a bond with her on set.”

As for Keaton and O’Hara, Ortega also sang their praises.

“I have been such a fan of Michael Keaton for such a long time that I think actually seeing him in person I went inside myself because I weirdly got shy,” she said, adding that seeing Keaton perform the Beetlejuice character “was the first time I think I saw someone completely disappear, no bit of themselves involved, so that was pretty special.”

Ortega added, “Catherine O’Hara is one of, if not the funniest person, I met in my life.”

Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams in Netflix’s Wednesday, which released its first season in 2022. The team is currently in production on season two.

“We’re shooting episodes 201 and 204 right now and there’s a lot happening in those episodes and they feel very prominent,” Ortega said. “It feels like every day we’re tackling a big scene.”

Also for the interview, Ortega quipped about a few personal details, including the reveal that her first celebrity crush “was Barack Obama” and that she was confused and tickled by the (completely fabricated) rumors that she was dating Johnny Depp.

“It’s so insane to me, like, I never spoke on that, I never said anything like that,” Ortega said. “I thought that that was pretty hilarious.”