Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa - November 03, 2026


Jenna Ortega's SHOCKING Confession !!

More LEAKED Text Messages !!

Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

159.77

Word count

2,997

Sentence count

127

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 If you ever wonder why kids get messed up after being Disney stars, here is definitely one of the
00:00:08.400 reasons. Hi and welcome to Flossom Talk, I'm Serge Tiflor, journalist, Hollywood truth teller and
00:00:18.060 your voice of reason in a town built on delusion. So what happens when someone turned you into a
00:00:26.200 brand before you could even figure out who you are. And on top of that, you're told that other
00:00:33.480 people's happiness is your responsibility. Yeah, that's what the media training at Disney Channel
00:00:39.620 told Jenna Ortega. Let's talk about it. So Jenna Ortega is out with a new movie now called Clara
00:00:46.160 and the Sun, and she's doing some promotional interviews for it. She was on the podcast that
00:00:51.880 Happy Confused just a few days ago with Josh Horowitz. And some of the things that she revealed
00:00:57.480 in that interview was pretty disturbing. Jenna started acting at 12 at the Disney Channel and
00:01:03.360 on this podcast she talked about some of the training she received from Disney, like how to
00:01:08.800 prepare when she was meeting fans and really what her responsibility was. I've interviewed a few
00:01:14.360 children myself at these kind of press junkets and I always find it so awkward. There's something
00:01:21.000 really off about a child having to sit on camera in front of a journalist and try to sell a tv show
00:01:28.360 or a movie. I don't think an interview with a child could convince someone to even watch something on
00:01:34.100 tv or a film and every time I've interviewed a child they're always being paired up with
00:01:40.520 a grown-up so then that other actor can sit and help them answer these questions and make them
00:01:45.600 feel comfortable. I don't know why on earth anyone would do that. Why would you put a child in that
00:01:51.400 position? Of course they're worried they're going to say something wrong. I've also seen how
00:01:56.060 uncomfortable it makes these kids when they are like receptions or premiere parties and they're
00:02:02.440 hanging out with grown-ups at these parties and then adults come up to them and take selfies with
00:02:08.960 them. It just makes me really uncomfortable. So just imagine Jenna at 12 years old. She is at
00:02:16.200 Disney Channel and she's been told she is the luckiest girl in the world to get an opportunity
00:02:23.300 like this. And then they're telling here, we need to do some media training so you can prepare
00:02:29.020 yourself to become a big star. And on top of that, keep in mind that Jenna is also suffering from
00:02:36.780 ocd she talked about that recently as well something that she developed already at the
00:02:42.020 age of seven so you have all of that stuff to carry and then disney is telling you this when i
00:02:48.540 was young and i was on disney channel they took us to like media training and they told us um
00:02:55.280 you know every time someone meets you it's probably the only time they're ever going to
00:03:00.500 interact with you like that's a very special moment in their lives so just be aware of that
00:03:04.300 no pressure that has never left me and sometimes i try to give myself grace can you imagine the
00:03:11.300 pressure you put on a 12 year old when they're told that the person that is coming up to you
00:03:19.300 asking for a selfie or an autograph so it's your responsibility to make that moment for that person
00:03:27.020 feel exceptional. If you ever wonder why kids get messed up after being Disney stars,
00:03:34.820 here is definitely one of the reasons. How can you tell a child that someone else's happiness
00:03:41.300 in that moment is your responsibility? It's not like they did any training on how to act and how
00:03:48.420 to react if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe in a situation. They're just like, no, you are now a
00:03:55.420 Disney brand. And it's your responsibility that people will always have a positive association
00:04:01.500 with our brand. And it doesn't matter if they're children coming up to you or if it's a 50,
00:04:09.620 60 year old man coming up to you. It is your responsibility to make that meeting unforgettable.
00:04:15.400 I remember I was doing a story on this young musician and I was backstage at our concert
00:04:22.000 and I saw the line of people that bought VIP tickets,
00:04:27.420 meaning that they were able to come backstage
00:04:29.400 and greet her after the concert.
00:04:31.900 She was 17 or 18 at the time.
00:04:34.860 And I think I could safely say that 95% of the people
00:04:40.540 who were in line to meet and greet her backstage
00:04:43.360 were men in their 50s, 60s and 70s.
00:04:48.520 It was so creepy to me.
00:04:51.540 None of them acted inappropriately, but just to watch her standing there greeting this man, taking photos with him, just really rubbed me the wrong way.
00:05:01.680 Why would all these middle-aged men pay?
00:05:04.700 They paid quite a lot, actually, to get these tickets to take a selfie with an 18-year-old girl.
00:05:11.220 And this is also something that Jenna addressed in this interview.
00:05:15.240 I'm trying to have better boundaries so maybe if I feel like it's not so safe of a situation or
00:05:21.600 maybe I don't want to stop and agree to take a photo with a random grown man but kids and
00:05:25.920 things like that of course um yeah it is a lot though and again it's it's sweet like some of
00:05:33.600 the interactions are so sweet yeah and then some of them are a little bit more embarrassing or
00:05:37.960 aggressive or mean and it it's hard to know what the balance is um but you just
00:05:45.100 I do what I can yeah maybe she doesn't want to stop and take a selfie with a grown man
00:05:52.540 why would she want to do that and why is that her responsibility and of course today everyone has a
00:05:58.720 cell phone as well so if your interaction with someone is not as expected someone would post
00:06:05.220 that online and call you out for it. And of course, also, it's not always that you are in the mood for
00:06:11.400 hanging out with strangers. And I totally get that. But unfortunately, that is a part of this
00:06:17.360 game. That is a part of fame that you have to deal with. And that, of course, is nothing that anyone
00:06:23.760 can ever prepare themselves for, especially if you are 12 years old, like Jenna Ortega was when she
00:06:30.600 first experienced fame i've gotten older i've developed a stronger understanding and i'm
00:06:35.820 definitely a lot more self-critical or harsh on myself it's not so easy for me to shake things
00:06:41.140 off but it's less about what other people put on me and more about just internally feeling
00:06:48.300 high pressure this year i've been really good about just telling myself to get over myself
00:06:54.420 it's that easy because you become so thinking about the same things over and over and i have
00:07:00.300 OCD so I can't it's really hard for me to stop the train once it goes spiraling exactly so I'm
00:07:06.960 just as soon as I start spiraling I'm outside on a walk yeah I don't think this is a great
00:07:12.320 combination to have OCD to not be able to stop your train of thoughts and then at the same time
00:07:17.780 feel the pressure all the time to meet the expectations of every stranger that you meet
00:07:23.200 and back in August of this year Jenna also did an interview with Esquire magazine where she talks
00:07:28.780 about how it was hard for her to set boundaries for herself as a child i was so grateful and so
00:07:35.460 excited to be there that my game face was on i wasn't asking for a sip of water i would go all
00:07:40.920 day without eating drinking whatever because i wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody
00:07:46.920 that like maybe that was my mistake was like not actually looking after myself i think that we
00:07:53.040 heard this story so many times before. Like, why is no one looking after these kids? Why is no one
00:07:59.100 asking them if they're hungry or if they're thirsty when they're surrounded by adults all day?
00:08:06.320 And then we're surprised when they have mental struggles, when they get older. And Jenna said
00:08:11.820 in an interview earlier this week that she quietly struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder
00:08:18.000 since she was seven years old.
00:08:20.240 So even before she started acting, she had severe OCD.
00:08:25.740 She said that she had to repeat a specific routine every day before going to school.
00:08:31.660 She said, I had to open the bed sheet a certain way and open the drawer one way
00:08:36.580 and brush my hair in a slow-paced way.
00:08:39.420 And she said that she uses therapy, medication, and acting to cope with this.
00:08:44.780 She noted that it's helpful to channel all her energy into her work.
00:08:49.640 You have to breathe when the cameras are rolling, she said.
00:08:52.660 That's another reason why I like my job.
00:08:56.140 Yeah, maybe she feels like acting has helped her with her OCD that she can let loose.
00:09:02.080 But I think the other things that are expected of a person, especially a very young person,
00:09:08.120 when it comes to acting, when it comes to become famous, it's really, really unhealthy. Fame to
00:09:15.800 begin with is unhealthy for most people. A lot of people can't deal with it. And I think especially
00:09:22.440 for children, no children wants to become famous. They don't understand the concept of what fame
00:09:30.080 does to a person. And even if a child tells their parents that I want to become an actor at five
00:09:35.920 years old. I mean, my dream job when I was a child was to work in a candy store. And of course,
00:09:41.720 that changed as I got older. I got different ideas and values of what my future might look like. And
00:09:48.500 I don't think any child really understands what comes with a job like this. And to survive in
00:09:55.040 this meat grinder of a business, I think you have to have really, really strong, good parents with
00:10:05.140 really good values. If your mom and dad value fame more than your own well-being, that is a big red
00:10:12.560 flag. So what happens when you're becoming a brand before you even found your own identity? Yeah,
00:10:20.020 let's talk about that. But before we get more into that, a big thank you to the sponsor of this
00:10:25.380 video, One Skin. I've been using One Skin for over a year now, and I talked about it so many times
00:10:30.760 here on my channel. And that's because I love how they focus on keeping your skin healthy as you age.
00:10:37.860 For me, I'm not that bothered about my lines, but I really don't like the fact that my skin is
00:10:43.740 losing elasticity. One Skin's new OS1 Rich Face Cream was developed for something their scientists
00:10:50.680 called the Density Shift. Because as we get older, our skin becomes drier and it loses some of the
00:10:57.860 firmness it once had. This rich cream combines OS1 peptides with a dual phase hydration system
00:11:05.600 to help skin look firmer, more hydrated and smoother over time. Yeah there's actual science
00:11:11.900 involved here. I love how this rich cream deeply moisturizes and at the same time I started noticing
00:11:18.080 changes pretty quickly. I started peeling a little bit on my chin and I started noticing new younger
00:11:25.020 looking skin appear underneath. And I also love this overnight lip treatment that they have. And
00:11:30.720 I don't know how it would survive here in Spain all summer without this SPF for the lips. Born
00:11:36.360 from over 10 years of skin longevity research, One Skin is helping you unlock your healthiest
00:11:42.500 skin now and as you age. For a limited time, try their OS One Face Rich Cream with 15% off using
00:11:50.780 code FLO at oneskin.co slash FLO. That's 15% off at oneskin.co with code FLO. After your purchase,
00:12:01.300 they may ask where you heard about them, so please support my channel and tell them that I sent you.
00:12:06.300 Okay, so let's get back into it. As I said, I've interviewed a few child stars myself when they
00:12:11.760 were children, and also as they grew up. I've interviewed people like Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez,
00:12:19.020 And I think that they have a few things in common.
00:12:21.460 I always notice as a journalist when I speak to young actors,
00:12:25.460 it's always very obvious to me who's received a lot of media training and who hasn't. 1.00
00:12:31.600 Like it's really unnatural for a girl in her 20s to give such sophisticated answers. 0.70
00:12:38.360 It sounds like they've lived already three lives and they probably have compared to most people.
00:12:44.520 But looking at some of these young, especially Disney stars, it just makes so many things clear to me.
00:12:50.740 Demi Lovato has been open about her mental struggles for a long time as well.
00:12:54.780 And she said in an interview in 2024, she said to Teen Vogue that at a certain point, I realized everyone on Disney had a brand and my brand was a role model.
00:13:06.200 And she described how people were applauding this public persona that she had created.
00:13:13.180 And can you imagine the pressure you feel when you're being branded a role model, especially at a young age?
00:13:20.800 It's funny because I've asked this question to so many actors, young actors, older actors,
00:13:26.920 what they feel comes with the responsibility of being a role model.
00:13:31.480 And of course, you know, when you're put in that box, everything that you do and you say is going to be looked at from that lens.
00:13:40.720 hey you're a role model you can't say that you can't do that Demi said in this interview that
00:13:46.080 I had to make decisions in my personal life that were reflective of my brand or at least if I
00:13:51.500 didn't make those decisions I wouldn't do it publicly so she had to hide who she really was
00:13:58.620 for such a long time and you can imagine what that's actually doing to someone yeah having to
00:14:04.080 suppress everything in yourself can't be healthy for anyone. And same goes for Miley Cyrus. I feel
00:14:12.380 she's such a good example of trying to break loose from that brand that she was so carefully
00:14:20.120 molded into. She came out of her shell and renewed herself and was a totally different person
00:14:26.380 than everyone thought after watching her in Hannah Montana. She's talked about this publicly as well
00:14:32.700 in interviews that she really struggled to find her own identity and when you grow up with fame
00:14:39.460 you get used to that you get used to the success and then you have to maintain that and then you
00:14:45.280 have to renew yourself all the time and then sometimes people don't even like the new you
00:14:50.320 and then people might not respond the way you want them to there was just an article in daily
00:14:55.580 mail this week about miley cyrus where they say fears for miley cyrus friends reveal her battle
00:15:01.500 for sobriety, power struggle with fiancé who gave her the ick and the tragic timing of Dolly
00:15:08.340 Parton's death as she seeks help. It says that she's struggling with what comes next. Miley is
00:15:14.840 at a point in her life where she's really trying to figure out who she is and more importantly what
00:15:20.680 she wants to be beyond just being Miley Cyrus the celebrity. I think also another example looking at
00:15:27.700 Hayden Panettiere. She started acting at 11 months old and she spoke publicly many times about her
00:15:34.480 mental struggles. She also talked a lot about that in her memoir and of course now we also know how
00:15:41.260 her mother played a big part in who she became and how she dealt with fame and how she dealt with
00:15:48.380 her career and maybe also how she dealt with the men in her life. I think it always comes back to
00:15:54.360 your parents. I just think it's so astonishing that there's no safety net for these kids growing
00:16:00.260 up in Hollywood. Where are the adults who are supposed to take responsibility? When Jenna
00:16:06.520 Ortega said that Disney trained her to always keep in mind that it was her responsibility
00:16:13.740 to make this moment precious for every stranger that came up to her and wanted to meet her.
00:16:22.200 And then, of course, everything just got so much worse with social media.
00:16:26.540 The pressure on these young actors is horrendous.
00:16:30.140 And I think we also see that in how a lot of them just get skinnier and skinnier
00:16:36.280 and start doing more and more changes to their faces.
00:16:40.160 And then when they come out with their new face and a skinny body,
00:16:44.320 people are like, hey, you were supposed to be a good role model.
00:16:47.920 How can you be so skinny and how can you do that to your face
00:16:51.940 We're supposed to look up to you, and we can't do that when you look like that.
00:16:56.380 Yeah, let me know what you think about this.
00:16:58.440 Anyway, that's it for me today, you guys.
00:17:00.580 As I said yesterday, tomorrow I'm traveling back to Los Angeles,
00:17:04.620 so I won't be posting anything here on YouTube,
00:17:08.160 but I will see all of you on Thursday.
00:17:11.660 And again, a big thank you to Oscar, my executive producer.
00:17:15.640 He's taking a nap before the long flight tomorrow.
00:17:18.420 He saw that we already started packing,
00:17:20.300 so he went to get his bag yesterday it was the sweetest thing he was sitting outside the closet
00:17:26.680 crying and I was wondering what he wanted and then he wanted me to bring down his bag and he
00:17:32.360 went and he sat inside his bag so he wants to come which is good news obviously and he wants
00:17:37.920 to remind everyone that you should subscribe to my channel right Oscar and hit the notification
00:17:45.540 bell as well. You never miss an episode of Flossom Talk. And we'll see you on Thursday. Bye.
00:18:15.540 Thank you.