Is Jenna Ortega truly toxic or just an easy target? We're being told to decide now.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that once a young famous woman becomes immensely popular, she is due for a brutal public teardown.

Everyone from Anne Hathaway to Jennifer Lawrence, Lena Dunham, Kristen Stewart, and Amy Schumer have felt the wrath of public hatred swing their way following a period of adoration. 

In recent years, stars such as Jennifer Lawrence have even admitted that they purposely retreated from the spotlight after feeling like the public's overexposure to them was fueling the backlash. Knowing that the cycle of love and hate takes a few years to run its full course and then reset.

But for actress Jenna Ortega, the process took mere months. 

Watch the trailer for Netflix's Wednesday. Post continues below.

The 20-year-old former child star first found fame on the Disney Channel before making a name for herself as an A-lister on the rise in movies such as The Fallout before being cast in the rebooted Scream franchise.

But the public adoration for her really soared following the launch of her Netflix series Wednesday, where Jenna's portrayal of the beloved Addams Family character, coupled with a dance scene that went viral on TikTok, led to the series breaking a streaming record in its first week.

But in the last week, things took a sharp turn for Jenna just as she was riding on a high from the box office success of the newly released Scream VI, which she appeared on the Armchair Expert podcast to promote.

While speaking with hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, Jenna spoke about the filming process for Wednesday, saying, "I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday."

"Everything that Wednesday does, everything I had to play, did not make sense for her character at all. Her being in a love triangle? It made no sense," she continued. 

"There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines. 

"The script supervisor thought I was going with something and then I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, 'Wait, what happened to the scene?' And I’d have to go and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things."

It's not the first time the actress has spoken about her creative differences on the series. In a discussion last year for Interview magazine, Jenna said she had to fight many "battles" with director Tim Burton over her acting choices.

But nothing quite blew up the way her Armchair Expert interview did, with countless headlines easily bringing in the clicks by proclaiming that Jenna Ortega called herself unprofessional.

Is Jenna Ortega toxic or just an easy target? Listen to The Spill hosts explain.

The coverage prompted TV writer and producer Steven DeKnight to label Jenna's behaviour "toxic" in a series of tweets that have gone on to make their own headlines. 

"I love talking with actors about their lines/stories," he tweeted. 

"But by the nature of the beast, they don't have the full picture (in TV) of where the story is going and why some lines are needed for the whole [show] to make sense.

"She's young, so maybe she doesn't know any better (but she should).

"She should also ask herself how she would feel if the showrunners gave an interview and talked about how difficult she was and refused to perform the material.

"This kind of statement is beyond entitled and toxic. I love her work, but life's too short to deal with people like this in the business."

While Steven DeKnight has somewhat backtracked on his statements saying, "She’s an amazing talent. It was just an unfortunate situation to expose creative differences publicly. And also I’ll admit that writers are on edge because of the impending strike, myself included. A perfect storm," the conversation is still raging on.

Now, there's one line in DeKnight's sort of apology that does ring true, but instead of being hooked on the writer's strike or creative differences, the perfect storm around Jenna Ortega's viral backlash comes down to celebrity worship and targeted toxicity.

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It's ironic that in the same interview which spurred headlines about her behavior, Jenna said that she was starting to feel like a human billboard. Someone who had to have a public-facing friendly message displayed across them at all times in order to avoid a firestorm.

Our current levels of celebrity worship are at an all-time high, except the rules surrounding who we love and why are stricter than they've ever been before. 

We want our celebrities to be entertainers, activists, social media stars, and down-to-earth-cool-chicks-who-just-stumbled-into-fame. We want them to cover our newsfeeds but become fatigued with them when they do so and demand the narrative go another way. 

And because of this, we're seeing an acceleration of the love/hate/redemption arc that so many actresses before Jenna have cycled through before.

The reality of the situation is that Jenna Ortega could well have been a nightmare on the Wednesday set, we'll never really know the answer to that. Maybe her colleagues really did feel a sense of betrayal for how she spoke about them in public, not having the same platform available to air their own grievances.

But realistically, a sense of protection for the creative team behind Wednesday was never at the heart of the Jenna conversation or the reason why Steven DeKnight's tweets kicked off such a viral conversation.

Instead, it was the age-old internet lesson that nothing garners clicks and comments quite like a young woman at the height of her fame being cloaked in controversy and potential wrongdoing.  

On the other side of the fence, the celebrity worship around Jenna Ortega, or whoever currently has the It Girl title slapped upon them, leaves no room for nuance. 

No room to think that maybe a young woman misspoke for a few minutes in what was an extensive interview, or maybe stands exactly behind what she said and how it was received. 

That's always been the trouble with treating celebrities like morally superior cartoon characters, instead of just people who have scrambled to the top of a creative and cutthroat industry, and like any other human beings, are not untouchable role models.

It feels like the commenters involved in this conversation want an immediate answer to the question of whether or not Jenna Ortega's behavior is toxic or if she is just an easy target.

It's a question without a real answer, but the good news is, it's not one you'll have to dwell on for long. 

All because the outrage arc is sure to engulf another famous young woman very soon.

Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here.

Feature Image: Getty.