(Credit: Kelia Anne MacCluskey/Netflix)
Sat 1 November 2025 23:30, UK
She might have achieved global fame through a TV show, but Jenna Ortega loves movies.
You wouldn’t necessarily know that from her output, starring in some real stinkers in recent years, ranging from the unfunny, unscary comedy-horror Death of a Unicorn to Tim Burton’s ill-advised Beetlejuice Beetlejuice; however, based on her interviews, she appears a major cinephile.
When Elle UK asked the young star, who has recently floated the idea of directing her first film, about movies that have had the biggest impact on her, despite barely being old enough to drink in her native country, she revealed a penchant for a certain vintage strain.
“I just saw Fanny and Alexander, the [Ingmar] Bergman film, and it changed my life,” she said, adding, “I also saw The Black Tower by John Smith, which was really interesting. And I revisited Wings of Desire, the [Wim] Wenders film, which is so beautiful it made me cry. That one really stayed with me.”
All of Ortega’s picks come from the 1980s, a decade that her parents might struggle to remember. Fanny and Alexander, the earliest of the decade, hitting screens in 1982 from legendary director (and alleged Nazi) Ingmar Bergman, is an epic saga that follows the lives of two children in a loving Swedish family, whose lives take a turn for the worse once their father dies and their mother remarries. It’s unknown if Ortega prefers the original 188-minute cut of the film or the whopping 312-minute version that was originally intended to be released as a TV show, but if she’s anything like her sadistic alter ego, then she’ll opt for the latter.
Ortega’s gothic persona also fits perfectly with Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire, known as Der Himmel über Berlin in Germany, which translates to ‘The sky over Berlin’. The film is set in a version of the city that is inhabited by immortal angels, where one of them, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with Solveig Dommartin’s human trapeze artist and must decide whether to retain his everlasting life or give it up in order to cross over to the human world. Unsurprisingly, the film takes inspiration from the segregation caused by the Berlin Wall, which forced loved ones to live wildly different lives, away from each other.
The Black Tower, also from 1987, is easily her most interesting pick as this short film from English director and actor John Smith depicts a man who believes he is being followed by the titular building. The 23-minute piece is extremely low budget, comprising mostly static shots and a voiceover of Smith’s character describing his ordeal, yet the bizarre blend of primary colours, simplistic narrative, and unexplained paranoia is oddly gripping. If your interest has been piqued, you can catch the whole thing on YouTube.
Given her reputation for being mature beyond her years, it should come as no surprise that Ortega is a fan of such challenging and unconventional movies as these. You should never judge a book by its cover, and you should certainly never judge an actor’s favourite movies from their output or the way they look.
Related Topics