Jenna Ortega‘s acting in The Fallout had some unfortunate real-life inspiration, as the actress lived through tragic events involving the danger of mass shootings in the US. In an interview for Deadline, Ortega spoke about her experience in public school and how it helped her prepare for the delicate subject of the film.
In The Fallout, Ortega plays the role of a teenager trying to move on with her life after surviving a mass shooting in her school. The film focuses on the trauma kids must carry for their whole life after going through such a shocking experience. Unfortunately, The Fallout remains exceptionally relevant, as mass shootings happen in America almost daily. When asked how her experience was working on a project with such a delicate subject, Ortega talked about how her trust in writer and director Megan Park helped her through the process. In Ortega’s words:
“A project like this, it’s so relevant and it’s so unfortunately real that I think it was a bit nerve-wracking because obviously I only want to be respectful to anybody who’s ever experienced anything like this before. It’s a very sensitive topic. But after meeting with Megan, the writer-director who’s so wonderful and put so much time and effort into this project, knowing that she was only coming from a place of respect and well-meaning and had educated herself on the topic, I felt safe to proceed.”
Besides educating herself on the subject before The Fallout’s production, Ortega was able to channel her own experience with public schools to bring her character to life. As Ortega explains, it’s normal for students nowadays to undergo shooter drills and even come face to face with fire weapons. As Ortega reveals:
“I went up [to public school] until my freshman year of high school. I was in public school. We always had active shooter drills. When I was in eighth grade, we had an active shooter drill that was supposed to take place after lunch. And as soon as lunch began, the alarm system went off and the teachers ushered all the students into our main auditorium. And we were asking, ‘Wasn’t this supposed to start later?’ And we’re thinking, ‘Oh, maybe they’re trying to do an element of surprise or something like that.’ And even when we were sitting in the auditorium, it just seemed a bit off and we kept asking the teachers, ‘Is this real? Is this real?’ We didn’t realize it was actually a real situation. And apparently, a student had brought a gun on campus and was showing people. The police came, they escorted the student out and it was a whole big deal. It’s intense when something suddenly turns real like that. Nobody ever really understands until it happens to them. So, I think I had already had that moment of ‘it could happen anywhere, at any time.’ My younger siblings, there have been times when they have been told not to go to school on certain days because there was a bomb threat or something. It’s awful.”
The Fallout is available for viewing now on HBO Max.