Jenna has been acting for a minute now — like, way before Wednesday. Her first leading role was in the Disney Channel show Stuck in the Middle, which was on the air from 2016 to 2018.
In a new interview with the New York Times, Jenna got real about her experience as a child actor, and what she took away from it when it came to moving around in the world in general.
“Child acting is strange,” she told the publication. “I see why my parents felt so hesitant about it, because you’re putting a child in an adult workplace.”
Jenna went on to say that the experience of being a child actor “completely changed my way of thinking and going about life.” “When I speak to other child actors, I can pick them out instantly because we all have that,” she added. “It’s just very specific, like some secret little language or something that we all share.”
“Children aren’t supposed to be working like that. They are supposed to be climbing trees and drawing and going to school. Some of those kids’ parents don’t even take school seriously, so I feel really, really fortunate to have had parents who made sure that I hung out with friends, made sure that I went to public school and wouldn’t allow me to work on a job unless I had straight A’s and was prioritizing my sleep and my schoolwork.”
Jenna went on to say that she sometimes regrets her experience as a child actor. “There’s times that my parents regret it,” she said, before adding that, “looking back, I wouldn’t change anything.”
“I don’t believe in that because if anything, I’m incredibly grateful for the lessons that it did teach me. I love that when I go on a set now, I’m incredibly knowledgeable,” she explained, before discussing how her experience as a child actor made her more knowledgable about the technical aspects of making film and television.
“I know what’s going on around me, therefore I feel incredibly safe and comfortable and excited to go to work every day because it’s familiar to me.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jenna also said that her experience as a child actor made her “fearful” of other people and more introverted as a result.
“I didn’t know anyone, and I wanted to be able to do things at my own pace and in my own style, but you didn’t know if people were saying things to help you or to hurt you,” she admitted.
“Just speaking about my career as a child overall, there were definitely a few moments where you realized, Oh, maybe that person didn’t have my best interests, or maybe they didn’t want to be as supportive of me as they said.”
“That’s a hard lesson to learn so young, and especially hard when you have adults or people who should know better addressing you in a way that is potentially harmful to somebody whose brain is still growing and developing.”
You can read the entire interview here.
