Jenna Ortega is remembering the late actor Cameron Boyce who supported her during an uncomfortable audition. Speaking to her “Beetlejuice” co-stars Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara during an interview with France’s Canal+ (via People), Ortega said she had a tough time during the audition because she was supposed to kiss Boyce during it. Not only were they friends, they were also teenagers at the time. Boyce died in his sleep in 2019 at the age of 20 after suffering a seizure.
“The last time I saw my friend Cameron Boyce — I've known him since I was 11 or 12 — we were supposed to kiss. [in an audition] “He had known me since I was 11 or 12,” Ortega told her co-workers. “A few years later, when I was 15 or 16, we joined the business and were supposed to be in love. But because he was obviously weird and he was a little bit older, it was like we looked at each other and said, ‘No, we can’t do this.’”
“It was so sweet because I was feeling uncomfortable and I was going through a tough time,” Ortega added, noting that she was “so thankful” that Boyce spoke up during the audition and put her comfort above getting the job. “And afterward, we wished each other luck.”
Earlier this year, Boyce's parents told People magazine that it “means everything” to them when his friends and former colleagues share stories about the late actor because “they're still keeping his legacy alive” and “people still want to hold on to him. They don't want him gone.”
Ortega and other actors have recently spoken out about the uncomfortable auditions they were forced to take as young actors. Anne Hathaway, for example, told V Magazine in the spring that chemistry tests have come a long way since her audition days in the 2000s.
“In the 2000s — and this happened to me — it was normal for an actor to be asked to kiss other actors to test their compatibility, and that’s actually the worst way to do it,” Hathaway said. “I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming in today and you’re a cast member. Aren’t you excited to kiss every single one of them?’ And I was like, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ Because I wasn’t excited. I thought it looked gross.”
“I was so young and I knew how easy it was to lose everything because I was called ‘difficult,’ so I just put on a show and kept going,” Hathaway continued. “It wasn’t a power play, and no one was trying to be mean or hurt me. It was just a completely different time and now we know better.”
