Ryan’s nurtured a love-hate relationship with the media ever since she hopped on a private plane to attend the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally-turned-riot on Jan. 6, 2021. She’s consistently accused journalists covering her case (us included) of bias and defamation. But not long after each complaint of unfair media treatment, Ryan would again announce her next big interview.
Case in point: In a March TikTok video, Ryan opened up about the dangers of cancel culture driven by the media. But later that same month, she had seemingly forgotten about her camera-wariness and announced that she and her entertainment attorney were working on a deal for a “humongous project.”
“I can’t wait to tell you all about what’s about to happen,” she says in the video, smiling from ear to ear. “Jenna Ryan has been discovered. Yay!”
But the excitement would be short-lived.
Last week, Ryan posted a new video to break some bad news. She had been slated to appear in a documentary with “high-level, high-end” Hollywood producers, who had reportedly promised to film her in a favorable light.@dotjenna I've been discovered!!!! I can announce the project shortly. Oh my gosh so exciting!!!
♬ original sound - Jenna Ryan
“I’ve been told that before, OK? This isn’t my first rodeo,” she says, addressing her TikTok followers. “Last year I was courted by the media like rabid beasts, and I never dreamed that they would do some of the things that they were doing and that they did to me ultimately.” (We here at the Observer have already gotten our rabies shots, thank you very much.)
Then, Ryan takes out a makeup brush and begins to dab on blush. She explains that a producer who had once been accommodating and kind had suddenly become “complete rabid mean.” The deal had gone south, Ryan explained, adding that she’d faced accusations of being “a demanding ho, basically.”
Ryan notes that she has to be careful with her image. She compares herself to Taylor Swift and Prince and former President Donald Trump, all of whom Ryan says had bad experiences with contracts and/or the media.
Next, Ryan claims to have asked for a limitation on the producers’ rights to her image.
“I don’t want you to go and create a video game or do movies about this docuseries,” Ryan says. “I want a limitation in my agreement. And … this particular producer went sweet mean on me. She went mean.
“I was like, ‘Mm, hmm,’” she continues. “So, I said, ‘Boom! I’m out.’ So I’m not doing Hollywood right now.”
Hear that? It’s the sound of Werner Herzog weeping.
Maybe if Ryan has gleaned anything from this close encounter with Tinsel Town, it’s that it’s wise to keep potential projects under wraps until you’re absolutely sure they’ll make. Still, it’s a lesson that she perhaps should have learned already. Ryan once tweeted that she was uncancellable shortly before her publisher canceled a self-help book she’d penned.@dotjenna Jenna Ryan life update Hollywood
♬ original sound - Jenna Ryan
Speaking of books, Ryan again took to TikTok this month and quite surprisingly quoted feminist-and-eroticist-essayist-and-author Anaïs Nin. First, Ryan bemoaned haters who project their “own inner ick” onto others. Haters, you see, can’t stand to see you succeed.
“And just like Anna-Naïs Nin says, 'people see you as they are, not how you are,'” Ryan continues, adding an extra syllable to Nin’s first name. “And so these haters see you like they are, and they think you’re like them. And they can’t deal with their own bad stuff and then so what they’re doing is they’re projecting it on you and they’re blowing you up and they’re hating on you and calling you names and mentally they’re just messed up and so they’re projecting onto you what they are.”@dotjenna Haters hate your success #jennaryan ♬ original sound - Jenna Ryan
Spoken like a true literary genius. Nin would be proud.