We all know Jenna Ortega from playing Wednesday in Netflix’s Addams Family spin-off, released in 2022. But the star takes on a completely different role in her latest film, Miller’s Girl, where her intimate scene with Martin Freeman is already causing a stir online.
In the dark-comedy drama, Ortega plays 18-year-old student Cairo Sweet, who becomes romantically entangled with her married English professor, Jonathan Miller, played by Martin Freeman.
Highlights
- Jenna Ortega stars in a controversial role opposite Martin Freeman in 'Miller's Girl'.
- Fans expressed discomfort over intimate scenes due to a 31-year age gap between Ortega and Freeman.
- The film ignited a debate on the appropriateness of depicting relationships with significant age differences.
The pair enter into a complicated relationship following a creative writing assignment, leading Miller to risk his marriage and job to help Cairo.
In reality, Ortega is 21, and Freeman is 52, an age gap of 31 years.
Image credits: Lionsgate Movies
What most raised concerns online was an intimate scene between the two stars that many people deemed “inappropriate” and “disgusting.”
Someone took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to respond to the sex scene, writing, “Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman… I’m uncomfortable.”
Another user said: “This Jenna Ortega/Martin Freeman film is so gross! So, so, so, so gross!”
“Just saw a thread of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) groping Jenna Ortega in new show, strange times,” somebody else wrote on the platform.
In the film, Ortega plays 18-year-old student Cairo Sweet, who becomes romantically entangled with her married English professor, Jonathan Miller
Image credits: Lionsgate
Image credits: Lionsgate Movies
Some users brought the stark age difference between the actors to the attention, remarking that "when Martin Freeman was in his 40s, Jenna Ortega was 10 years old."
“That jenna ortega martin freeman clip might b the worst thing i’ve ever seen,” another fan complained.
Another X user wasn’t as disturbed by the scene, joking that the Hobbit actor “aged differently” than the rest of us.
“Everyone is freakin out abt [sic] this movie ‘Miller’s Girl’ because of the age difference,” they wrote on X.
“But really, Hobbits age differently than us. For every one year of our life, that equals three of theirs. So, in reality, Martin Freeman is only like 17 1/2. Jenna Ortega is the cradle robber.”
People have pointed out the 31-year age gap between both actors, labeling the sex scene "inappropriate" and "disgusting"
Image credits: Lionsgate Movies
Meanwhile, some have tried to normalize the relationship, reminding everyone that Ortega is 21 years old: “She's not really Wednesday or a high school student. She's an adult, and this was a scene for a movie.”
Plus, intimacy coordinator Kristina Arjona has revealed to the DailyMail that Jenna was involved in decisions about the curation of the racy moments, ensuring "it was consistent with what she was comfortable with."
Ortega and Freeman's wasn't the first on-screen relationship with a significant age gap to leave viewers disturbed.
The award for the biggest age difference between romantic leads in a film goes to 1999's Entrapment. In the film, a then 29-year-old Catherine Zeta-Jones played an investor for an insurance firm who got involved with Sean Connery, 68 at the time, who played a thief specializing in international art.
The movie is currently being shown in US theaters
Image credits: Lionsgate Movies
Director, writer, and producer Jade Halley Bartlett recently praised Ortega’s performance in an interview with WhatToWatch, saying, "[Ortega] scared the s**t out of me. She definitely went to a place with Cairo that... it's even tricky to explain
"There are some moments that Jenna has when she is looking at Jonathan or when she is talking to him when she is like I almost believe… she's like a vampire, like a 900-year-old vampire.
"There's something very ancient that she does that really scares the s**t out of me, excuse my language."
She also said that she didn’t have the typical villain-victim dynamic in Cairo and Jonathan’s story.
"All of these characters, nobody is good or bad. I think both of these characters — having the perfect victim and the perfect villain, that's boring, and it's not real.
"The characters to me, through the development of this from a play to the screen, became so much richer because they are all the facets of real people."
"The characters to me, through the development of this from a play to the screen, became so much richer because they are all the facets of real people."
Watch the trailer for "Miller's Girl" below
Image credits: Lionsgate Movies
While the LA Times called the film “bad but entertaining” and “pure unintentional camp,” Variety wrote that Bartlett’s work “delivers a tale whose transgressions are stylish but disappointingly predictable.”
Ortega made headlines last year after dropping out of her role in Scream VII, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts.
However, some have speculated that the Emmy-nominated actress exited the horror franchise in support of her co-star, Melissa Barrera, who had allegedly been fired due to comments she made about the ongoing Israel-Palestine war on social media.
She will soon star in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the much-anticipated Beetlejuice sequel, a follow-up to Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic.
The Warner Bros film is set to be released on 6 September 2024, with original stars Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton reprising their roles as Lydia Deetz and Beetlejuice, respectively.
"When Martin Freeman was in his 40s, Jenna Ortega was 10 years old," someone wrote
