Jenna Ortega is still confused by a rumor and has denied it again.
The “Wednesday” star made headlines last summer when celebrity gossip account Do More falsely reported that she had been spotted on a date with co-star Johnny Depp, 61. Though both were quick to deny the allegations, the rumor still baffles Ortega.
“To me, it’s just unbelievable,” the 21-year-old actor told HuffPost’s parent company BuzzFeed in an interview Monday, with his puppy by his side.
“I was on set with Richard E. Grant and he came up to me and said, ‘Oh, is that you and Johnny?'” Ortega explained of their upcoming collaboration on Death of the Unicorn. “And I just laughed, because I don’t know the guy.”
Ortega has been working professionally for more than a decade, but got his breakthrough in the Netflix gothic series “Wednesday,” produced and partially directed by Tim Burton, whose 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands” launched Depp to stardom.
Perhaps the several degrees of separation and the 23-year age difference between Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard gave credence to the Do More rumors. There were also rumors that Depp would co-star with Ortega in “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.” However, Depp’s publicist was quick to respond when the rumors circulated in 2023.
“Mr Depp has no personal or professional relationship with Mr Ortega,” a representative for the actor told NME in August last year. “He has never met or spoken to Mr Ortega and is not involved in any projects with Mr Ortega and has no intention of being involved in any such projects in the future.”
“I don’t know that guy,” actress Jenna Ortega (left) told actor Johnny Depp (right).
Left: Vianney Le Caere/Associated Press, Right: Vianney Le Caere/InVision/Associated Press
A rep for the actor finally said Depp is “appalled by the unfounded and malicious rumours intended to damage his reputation and career”, suggesting that it had been too cruel to allow the rumours to persist following his controversial 2022 libel trial.
Ortega herself reportedly denied the rumors in a now-deleted Instagram Story last year, but told BuzzFeed on Monday that her first boyfriend was significantly older than her: “I always say, my first love was Barack Obama. When he first ran for office, I was smitten.”
Ortega is soon set to appear in Burton’s “Beetlejuice” sequel, in which she will play the daughter of a character previously played by Winona Ryder, who famously dated Depp in the early 1990s.