Jenna Ortega recalled how the late Cameron Boyce stood up for her during an audition in which they were supposed to kiss when they were teenagers.
The 21-year-old actress knew Boyce from a young age when they were both Disney Channel stars. The actor died in 2019 at the age of 20 after suffering a seizure while he was sleeping.
Ortega and her "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" co-stars Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara recently sat down for an interview with French TV outlet Canal+ during which the "Wednesday" actress remembered the last exchange that she shared with Boyce prior to his death.
"The last time I saw my friend Cameron Boyce — I’d known him since I was like 11 or 12, and we were supposed to kiss [in an audition] and he knew me, since I was 11 or 12," Ortega said. "This is a few years later, 15 or 16, we came in and we were supposed to be love interests. But because he obviously felt weird and he was a bit older, he was like — we both just kinda looked at each other and we were like, ‘No, we can’t do this.'"
"And it was so sweet because I was uncomfortable, and I was having a hard time," she continued. "And then, we wished each other well."
Ortega told her co-stars that she was "really thankful and grateful" that Boyce had noticed her discomfort and spoken up for her.
Ryder and O'Hara both commended the "Mrs. Fletcher" star for his chivalrous act, noting that he was a "gentleman."
In July 2019, Boyce's family said that he died in his sleep "due to a seizure which was a result of an ongoing medical condition."
The Los Angeles County coroner's office later released an autopsy report stating that Boyce died unexpectedly from epilepsy.
According to the report, the "Descendants" star was found unresponsive at home on July 6, and later pronounced dead at the scene.
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At the time of Boyce's death, his family released a heartfelt statement through their spokesperson.
"It is with a profoundly heavy heart that we report that this morning we lost Cameron," a Boyce family spokesperson said.
"The world is now undoubtedly without one of its brightest lights, but his spirit will live on through the kindness and compassion of all who knew and loved him," they added. The family said they are "utterly heartbroken" by his passing and asked for privacy while they grieve.
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Boyce had been acting since he was 9 years old and was deeply involved in charity work. In March 2019, he introduced former Vice President and future U.S. President Joe Biden at the Biden Courage Awards.
During a June interview with People magazine at the annual Cam For A Cause fundraiser for The Cameron Boyce Foundation, the actor's parents Libby and Victor shared their gratitude for the friends and fans who paid tribute to Boyce on May 258, which would have been his 25th birthday.
Victor told the outlet that the outpouring of love for the son "means everything."
"Because of the love that Cameron receives, we still get, or we can grow as a foundation. We can push the mission out, we can push the message out because people still want to hold onto him. They don't want him to be gone," Victor said.
"And so, as well as us upholding his legacy, all of his fans, all of his supporters, they still keep his legacy alive," he added. "And that's super important, obviously for many reasons for us."
"For me, it's a reminder of just what a beautiful soul we birthed, but also we raised," Libby said. "And so, it's very mixed. It was very bittersweet. It was a very hard day, but it was also a very beautiful thing to see what he meant to so many people."
