Jenna Ortega is speaking out about the rumor she was dating Johnny Depp.
The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star addressed the speculation that first set social media alight last summer in a video interview with BuzzFeed published on Monday, August 26.
Asked about the “craziest rumor” she’s heard about herself, Ortega said: “Probably that I was in a serious relationship with Johnny Depp and I wanted everybody to leave us alone. It’s so insane to me. I never said anything like that.”
“I thought that that was pretty hilarious. I was on set with Richard E. Grant and he came up to me and he said, ‘Oh, so you and Johnny…’ and I laughed because I don’t know that person,” Ortega, 21, added.
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Celebrity Instagram account DeuxMoi first linked the Wednesday star to Depp, 61, last summer. However, the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s representative denied the rumor.
“Mr. Depp has no personal or professional relationship with Miss Ortega whatsoever. He has never met her or spoken to her,” Depp’s rep told NME in August 2023. “He is not involved in any project with her, nor does he intend to be. He is appalled by these baseless and malicious rumous that are intended to harm his reputation and career.”
Depp and Ortega are, however, both collaborators of Tim Burton, who directs Ortega in the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel. Ortega plays Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz. Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara also reprise their roles from the 1988 cult classic.
Ortega recently revealed how Keaton scared her on set while in full costume as Betelgeuse.
“He came up behind me,” Ortega explained on the Wednesday, August 21, episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “I was getting a hair and makeup test, and I got a tap on the shoulder and I turned around and it was a jump scare for sure. He was like, ‘Oh hey, I’m Michael,’ and he had molds peeling off his face.”
“I played it cool. And then it was cool until I met him for a second time out of hair and makeup because I introduced myself again because I forgot that I had already met him,” she said.
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Ortega called Keaton “the coolest” and said she was grateful for the chance to appear in the movie.
“Never in my wildest dreams. I just never could have anticipated something like that happening,” she gushed. “Lydia is the coolest character on the planet. Just everything about it, I was terrified.”
