I always love that moment when I’m watching something and I notice one of the child actors in it is now a major movie star. If you’ve watched the Marvel movies in order lately (available to stream with a Disney+ subscription), you might have had this experience with Iron Man 3. Sure, Jenna Ortega is in the movie for like two seconds, but I just found out there was almost more.
Ortega’s first movie was Iron Man 3, which was filmed when she was nine years old. She appears very briefly about an hour and a half into the 2013 flick as “Vice President’s Daughter”. But, her story about her time on set has me feeling wistful for her. In her words:
I had sat on my leg all day at work, and I limped all the way to the car with smiles and tears running down my face. I was just so happy to have been on a movie set. I refused to leave the wheelchair, because if somebody needed me, I wanted to be ready.
How adorable is this? Jenna Ortega wasn’t the Wednesday star she is these days on the Iron Man 3 set back then, but she sure had the stuff and the drive. Here’s a shot of her in the movie:
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Jenna Ortega plays the daughter of Miguel Ferrer’s Rodriguez, the Vice President of the United States. In the brief Jenna Ortega appearance, the camera pans down to show she doesn’t have one of her legs. The scene reveals to the audience that Rodriguez’s allegiances lie with the movie’s villain, Aldrich Killian, who’s giving him Extremis tech to help heal her.
According to Ortega, her character originally had lines and even a name, but the movie ultimately cut short the role. I totally get that she’s not a main character in Iron Man 3, and edits are part of showbiz. But now that we know what the actress is capable of, I want that deleted scene back! It would have been so cool if she was in it in even just a bit longer. Ortega also said this to Esquire about Iron Man 3’s release:
We were hopping from theater to theater to watch the same part of the movie. It was really sweet. My friends and family would run in and stand on the side of the theater and then everyone would cheer and scream and we’d go, Ahhhhh! Then we would run over to the next one and do the same thing—repeatedly.
At the time, it must have been so exciting for little Jenna Ortega to be in a big movie at all, but my heart kind of hurts, too. All that excitement, love and support for Iron Man 3, and she didn’t say a single line! This happens a lot in Hollywood. I guess it makes me think about all the small parts in movies and TV shows that may not be a big deal to us, but mean the world to its burgeoning actors. As Ortega added:
The thrill wasn’t for me. It was the fact I had begged my mom to let me do this thing. To see my family get excited about something that I was able to accomplish, because I was stubborn and persistent enough to have made them proud, that was what was exciting to me.
Ortega grew up over two hours outside of Los Angeles to a sheriff’s deputy and emergency-room nurse. They managed to drive her back and forth to auditions in order to support her dream at a young age. It certainly paid off now that she’s been in a ton of movies and TV shows across almost 15 years.
Don’t expect her to be in any upcoming Marvel movies. She’s said before that she counts that as her MCU stunt and “I move on”. Ugh, if only! They could have built on it later, but I guess she doesn’t need it either way.
Though, we do have some ideas for superheroes she could play. Ortega’s next role is in Klara In the Sun, which is among 2026 movie releases coming out this fall.