“The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Seen”: People Disturbed By Jenna Ortega And Martin Freeman’s Scene
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.
- 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.
A steamy scene between Jenna Ortega, 21, and Martin Freeman, 52, in the new comedy-drama “Miller’s Girl” has left some viewers disturbed
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
“Miller’s Girl,” which runs for an hour and 33 minutes, currently has a score of 5,5/10 on IMDB.
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.”
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
Wow, some of the above comments are completely fuc*ing insane. Why all the backlash against Martin Freeman? He is an actor playing a fuc*ing fictitious role, he is not really having an affair with Jenna Ortega, they are not really having sex, they are acting. And even if they were having sex, so what? They are both intelligent consenting adults perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what is right and wrong.
Apart from that, 18 (or 21 as she in reality is) is a legal adult, so nothing wrong there. People seem to have no problem with very violent scenes, but anything intimate/sensual/sexual should be banned? Just because *you* are not comfortable with it (for whatever reason). No one forces you to watch it. I wanted to avoid country-naming but this seems to happen often in a certain country that is at the same time the biggest producer of explicit adult films
Load More Replies...The film/TV role was to show an older man having sex with a younger woman (for whatever reason - I really can't be bothered to read any more into this). What did these people expect? A body double with Benjamin Button syndrome?
I was thinking the same. The article states that the story is about a relationship between a student and her professor. Those two groups of people usually do have an age gap between each other.
Load More Replies...People don't seem to understand how to separate fiction from reality these days
Load More Replies...It sounds like the age gap is an important plot point, it is supposed to be a student- professor relationship. Plus it is described as a thriller, I doubt this is going to be a warm fuzzy, happily ever after ending. I think the audience is supposed to be a bit uncomfortable with the pairing. That is a totally different situation than when you have a movie with a middle age male lead and they decide to cast a 20 something actress as the love interest for no reason.
I think I'd be offended if I was Jenna in this situation. I would feel like everyone getting all up in arms over this is forgetting I'm an adult who chose this acting role of my own free will. If you want to attack someone over this call out the writer, not my co-star
Good point actually. Sometimes people assume women to be victims of whatever and by doing to that, they strip them away of their right to make decisions of their own. marginalizing women happens also quit often here on BP, for example every time there's one of those stupid non-articles about Kayne and his wife.
Load More Replies...I guess none of you in the USA that are criticizing this movie ever see Jerry Springer or Maury Povich or any other TV show that has REAL couples with these kinds of age differences in relationships? What about Anna Nicole Smith and her husband that was at least twice her age? Get real, people. This stuff happens all the time. LMAO
Somehow people criticising this are saying that she, a legal adult, can not make her own decisions. Oh wait it's just a movie
The Graduate - a movie where older married woman seduced a boy half her age laves noone disgusted...
Just the typical Internet outrage, barely worth a mention to be honest. The actors are of legal age, the movie is themed about that exact topic and the most important part - they are acting. If people don't want to see it they don't have to, I for example won't watch it either (the genre isn't my cup of tea and I would fall asleep)
this s**t happens in real life, and this is what sets you off? this? not all the actual s**t that is actually happening, but a f*****g movie?
*Child marrying an 40 year old: Exists*. These people: "I don't like this fictional movie!"
Load More Replies...Its not about the age gap. People are upset because she's "hot" and he's "old" that's the real reason. They're both adults, and they're both acting, playing the roles they are meant to play. Learn the difference between movies and reality, people.
Oh the irony of outrage that a straight man would be with a straight woman in a move, albeit with an age gap, and people lose their ever loving minds. However, when BoredPanda shared a post about ignorant incest becoming knowledgeable incest, people were defending their right to stay married. It was from weird things happening in a small town; one of those weird things was a pair of twins finding out they were twins and they stayed married to each other even after finding out. People are fine with married siblings IN REAL LIFE, but not older man and younger woman having a consensual relationship IN A FREAKIN' MOVIE!!!
I fine with either, because it's none of my f*****g business
Load More Replies...Like this doesn't happen in real life. It Fiction guys not real, nobody made you watch it. If you felt uncomfortable don't watch it. The problems is they probably got tuned on and went to flagellate themselves or flick the bean and felt guilty after.
people are insane. it's a movie. it's called acting. if you don't want to see that kind of thing, don't watch. no one put a gun to your head and made you. even in real life age gaps exist, and that's fine when it's two adult consenting human beings. my parents were 24 years apart.
The age gap and rhe outrage about it are the main reason people talk about this movie. Or watch it. Otherwise nobody would care about it because nothing to see here, really
Ortega is an out right RACIST and you are concerned she's doing a scene with bilbo bagins?! What the f ?!
Being in a relationship with someone old enough to be your parent is weird and gross. And yes I get that it’s a movie and not real, but showing this stuff normalizes it and makes real people think that it’s acceptable.
To tell a visual story about something that actually happens is completely valid. Can you imagine the uproar if Shirley Jackson, Ambrose Bierce, or even Bradbury were taken as anything other than fiction? It's there to create mental conflict. That's the purpose. They chose the roles. They consented to the character.
But wasn't the point of this to show an older man and a younger woman? That they aren't portraying him as younger than he is in real life nor her older than she is? Nor that they're together in real life? I'm sick of the age gap stuff too but context matters. Like, what're we even doing but hurting the actual issue by getting mad at s**t like this.
Having issues with a teacher having an affair *with a student* is worth getting riled up over, there's professional ethics and imbalance of power and whatever else you want to chuck in the hat. Age gap? As long as it's actually consensual, for those in the back - nobody else's business! Don't like movie, don't watch movie, it's not hard
I mean, this is a movie about an inappropriate relationship, you're not supposed to approve of it, similar to poison ivy, Lolita, the reader, election etc etc etc
Wow, some of the above comments are completely fuc*ing insane. Why all the backlash against Martin Freeman? He is an actor playing a fuc*ing fictitious role, he is not really having an affair with Jenna Ortega, they are not really having sex, they are acting. And even if they were having sex, so what? They are both intelligent consenting adults perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what is right and wrong.
Apart from that, 18 (or 21 as she in reality is) is a legal adult, so nothing wrong there. People seem to have no problem with very violent scenes, but anything intimate/sensual/sexual should be banned? Just because *you* are not comfortable with it (for whatever reason). No one forces you to watch it. I wanted to avoid country-naming but this seems to happen often in a certain country that is at the same time the biggest producer of explicit adult films
Load More Replies...The film/TV role was to show an older man having sex with a younger woman (for whatever reason - I really can't be bothered to read any more into this). What did these people expect? A body double with Benjamin Button syndrome?
I was thinking the same. The article states that the story is about a relationship between a student and her professor. Those two groups of people usually do have an age gap between each other.
Load More Replies...People don't seem to understand how to separate fiction from reality these days
Load More Replies...It sounds like the age gap is an important plot point, it is supposed to be a student- professor relationship. Plus it is described as a thriller, I doubt this is going to be a warm fuzzy, happily ever after ending. I think the audience is supposed to be a bit uncomfortable with the pairing. That is a totally different situation than when you have a movie with a middle age male lead and they decide to cast a 20 something actress as the love interest for no reason.
I think I'd be offended if I was Jenna in this situation. I would feel like everyone getting all up in arms over this is forgetting I'm an adult who chose this acting role of my own free will. If you want to attack someone over this call out the writer, not my co-star
Good point actually. Sometimes people assume women to be victims of whatever and by doing to that, they strip them away of their right to make decisions of their own. marginalizing women happens also quit often here on BP, for example every time there's one of those stupid non-articles about Kayne and his wife.
Load More Replies...I guess none of you in the USA that are criticizing this movie ever see Jerry Springer or Maury Povich or any other TV show that has REAL couples with these kinds of age differences in relationships? What about Anna Nicole Smith and her husband that was at least twice her age? Get real, people. This stuff happens all the time. LMAO
Somehow people criticising this are saying that she, a legal adult, can not make her own decisions. Oh wait it's just a movie
The Graduate - a movie where older married woman seduced a boy half her age laves noone disgusted...
Just the typical Internet outrage, barely worth a mention to be honest. The actors are of legal age, the movie is themed about that exact topic and the most important part - they are acting. If people don't want to see it they don't have to, I for example won't watch it either (the genre isn't my cup of tea and I would fall asleep)
this s**t happens in real life, and this is what sets you off? this? not all the actual s**t that is actually happening, but a f*****g movie?
*Child marrying an 40 year old: Exists*. These people: "I don't like this fictional movie!"
Load More Replies...Its not about the age gap. People are upset because she's "hot" and he's "old" that's the real reason. They're both adults, and they're both acting, playing the roles they are meant to play. Learn the difference between movies and reality, people.
Oh the irony of outrage that a straight man would be with a straight woman in a move, albeit with an age gap, and people lose their ever loving minds. However, when BoredPanda shared a post about ignorant incest becoming knowledgeable incest, people were defending their right to stay married. It was from weird things happening in a small town; one of those weird things was a pair of twins finding out they were twins and they stayed married to each other even after finding out. People are fine with married siblings IN REAL LIFE, but not older man and younger woman having a consensual relationship IN A FREAKIN' MOVIE!!!
I fine with either, because it's none of my f*****g business
Load More Replies...Like this doesn't happen in real life. It Fiction guys not real, nobody made you watch it. If you felt uncomfortable don't watch it. The problems is they probably got tuned on and went to flagellate themselves or flick the bean and felt guilty after.
people are insane. it's a movie. it's called acting. if you don't want to see that kind of thing, don't watch. no one put a gun to your head and made you. even in real life age gaps exist, and that's fine when it's two adult consenting human beings. my parents were 24 years apart.
The age gap and rhe outrage about it are the main reason people talk about this movie. Or watch it. Otherwise nobody would care about it because nothing to see here, really
Ortega is an out right RACIST and you are concerned she's doing a scene with bilbo bagins?! What the f ?!
Being in a relationship with someone old enough to be your parent is weird and gross. And yes I get that it’s a movie and not real, but showing this stuff normalizes it and makes real people think that it’s acceptable.
To tell a visual story about something that actually happens is completely valid. Can you imagine the uproar if Shirley Jackson, Ambrose Bierce, or even Bradbury were taken as anything other than fiction? It's there to create mental conflict. That's the purpose. They chose the roles. They consented to the character.
But wasn't the point of this to show an older man and a younger woman? That they aren't portraying him as younger than he is in real life nor her older than she is? Nor that they're together in real life? I'm sick of the age gap stuff too but context matters. Like, what're we even doing but hurting the actual issue by getting mad at s**t like this.
Having issues with a teacher having an affair *with a student* is worth getting riled up over, there's professional ethics and imbalance of power and whatever else you want to chuck in the hat. Age gap? As long as it's actually consensual, for those in the back - nobody else's business! Don't like movie, don't watch movie, it's not hard
I mean, this is a movie about an inappropriate relationship, you're not supposed to approve of it, similar to poison ivy, Lolita, the reader, election etc etc etc
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