Jenna Ortega gushes about Winona Ryder as she recalls their first time meeting for Beetlejuice sequel

Jenna Ortega opened up about what it was like meeting Winona Ryder for the first time on the set of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The 21-year-old Wednesday star plays Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Ryder’s 52-year-old Lydia Deetz, in the film.

“She was so warm and welcoming and kind and inviting from the very beginning, and I couldn’t be more grateful to her,” Ortega explained in an interview with the The New York Times.

“It was at a time when my career was taking a different turn and I didn’t realize I needed that from someone who could relate to me, but I did,” she said, adding that she was in a “transformative” time in her life after her overnight superstardom in the Netflix series Wednesday.

“The way Winona and I interacted was kind of weird. It was like we were kind of reading each other’s minds,” she added.

Jenna said she became famous so quickly that she felt like she was “stepping into someone else’s shoes.”

“I felt like I had entered someone else’s life and I didn’t know how to get back into my own life,” she said.

“Winona probably experienced that even more because of the success and attention she got in the ’90s, so she was the first person I contacted about that topic,” she explained.

“She made me feel seen, when other people in my life, as much as they wanted to, couldn’t relate to it or understand it.”

And what Jenna says about the Heathers star, she prefers to keep to herself.

“It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what it is, because I think I want to keep some of it between us.”

“She made me feel really beautiful and special, and that, again, meant a lot to me at the time,” she continued.

It’s not the first time the Scream IV star has praised the Reality Bites actress.

“Winona and I — I swear one day on set we just started talking and never stopped,” she said Fandango. “You can find us in the same position four hours later and never have we moved. She’s the best.”

Winona feels the same way, saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a connection with anyone like I did with Jenna. It was insane. And it felt like I was talking to a younger version of myself, but she’s just a thousand times cooler.”

The 21-year-old Wednesday star plays Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Ryder’s 52-year-old Lydia Deetz in the film; Winona pictured in August 2024

“She was so warm and welcoming and kind and inviting from the beginning, and I couldn’t be more grateful to her,” Ortega explained in an interview with the New York Times, pictured in August 2024

“It was at a time when my career was taking a different turn, and I didn’t realize I needed that from someone who could relate to it, but I did,” she said, adding that she was in a “transformative” time in her life after her overnight rise to superstardom in the Netflix series Wednesday; Winona, pictured in August 2024

“The way Winona and I interacted was kind of weird. It was like we were kind of reading each other’s minds,” she added, pictured in August 2024

“Because we both have the same, almost religious reverence for film,” she said in an interview with Screen rant.

“She’s a cinephile and we can talk about movies for years. We just had this intense connection and that was incredibly helpful. I was just blown away by her.”

Ortega had the last word, saying, “It’s weird; sometimes you look at someone and you just know.”

“I feel like we had that, and I never expected to have the incredible opportunity to work with her, let alone get to know her and love her. And she’s so easy to love,” she raved.