Transformative storytelling, the importance of being seen, and viral moments, with America Ferrera

0:00Net-a-Porter presents The Incredible Women Podcast, Series 10, Supernovas. Welcome to the 10th series of The Incredible Women Podcast, where we sit down with women who shine bright and draw greatness into their orbits. All at the top of their game, some of these incredible women you'll already be familiar with, and others we're excited to introduce you to. I'm Alice Casely-Hayford, Content Director at Net-a-Porter, and I'm Thrilled to be joined for this episode of our Supernova series by award-winning actor, director, producer and activist, America Ferreira.

0:37America Ferrera:Every character that I've played really leaves a mark. And I think that there's a part of me that always belongs to that character. I could find Betty in a second. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ferreira developed an interest in acting at a young age, performing in several school productions. She made her feature film debut in 2002 with the comedy drama Real Women Have Curves, earning widespread praise for her performance. But it was her iconic role as fashion magazine assistant Betty Suarez in the comedy drama series Ugly Betty that made her a household name. For her performance, she won a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, the first Latina woman to win in that category.

1:27Another career milestone came with the 2023 blockbuster Barbie, as director and co-writer Greta Gerwig penned the role of Gloria, the undervalued assistant to Mattel's CEO, specifically with Ferreira in mind. In one of the film's most powerful moments, Ferreira delivers a now viral monologue about the challenges of meeting society's conflicting expectations for women. Barbie went on to become the highest grossing release worldwide that year, earning over a billion dollars, and Ferreira was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her most recent role in The Lost Bus sees Ferreira star alongside Matthew McConaughey in Paul Greengrass's latest action movie.

2:08In May 2024, Ferreira was appointed a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the UN's International Organization for Migration, where she champions safe migration, women's rights and civic engagement. Let's meet America. Well, hello, America. Welcome to the Incredible Women podcast. It is such a pleasure to be talking with you today. How are you doing?

2:31America Ferrera:I'm well, thank you. How are you? I'm all right, thanks. We were just bemoaning the British weather, so apologies for the rain and the cold today, but summer's very much over. Yeah, it's to be expected, part of the package. Exactly, exactly. But congratulations on your latest project, The Lost Bus. It is such a moving, edge of the seat film and without giving too much away, it's about the wildfires in California and a group of people, especially kids, trying to escape that. What was the experience like filming that? You know, the heat, the horror, the tension is so palpable watching it. What was the experience like filming that?

3:16America Ferrera:Yeah, it was pretty intense. As you said, it's based on a true story, a fire in Paradise, California that took place in 2018. And this very inspiring, hopeful story, one of I'm sure thousands that happened that day of a bus driver and a teacher rescuing 22 stranded children from the fire. And, you know, doing anything based on a true story adds a level of intensity and also responsibility, I think, to honor it and get it right. And, you know, Paul Greengrass, who directed the film, is a master at action and tension. And, you know, when the cameras were rolling and we were actually filming, it was extremely tense by design.

4:11America Ferrera:one of the ways that that happened was Paul was, for a lot of it, chasing a specific kind of light, a certain magic hour glow that would add to the reflection of the fire, right? The fire that happened at very early in the morning, but by 10 a.m. it was pitch black dark if you were inside the ring of fire. So for a lot of the film, he was chasing this one hour of light, which meant that we would show up, rehearse a sequence of scenes kind of for hours. And then as soon as the light got right, we would basically have one hour to shoot. And so we would get through a sequence of as many as like three or four scenes on the page, but we would do it all in one take.

5:08America Ferrera:And so the takes would be as long as 30 to 40 minutes long. And they were huge and involved. And I remember my first couple of days, we shot the scenes at the school where, you know, there's about 60 children and then 40 parents and cars and the bus and Matthew and walking kids into a room and being in a room for 15 minutes, then lining kids up and walking onto the bus and driving the bus away. And we had to do it all in one go. Well, they famously say don't work with children as well. So how did you manage that? The kids were actually amazing. But you know, they're also like they're so spontaneous and in the moment that they're always adding to whatever's happening.

5:57America Ferrera:And I, you know, I think part of Paul's genius in the way he chose to shoot those scenes was that it did only add to the urgency of the moment, you know, and as an actor, I feel like if you're, for me, my ego can't hold on that long by like, by minute eight of just responding to children and fires and cars and sounds like you, you can't do anything but be in the moment and you can't really plan. And, and you really do have to just stay as present as possible. And, you know, Paul's always kind of going for almost like a very realistic documentary type feel in a lot of his films. And I think that's certainly true for this one.

6:45America Ferrera:And so all of that to say that I loved the process. It kind of felt like doing theater on camera. And I came from theater and love doing theater. And I love the pressure. I love the kind of organized chaos of it all. And it definitely helped, I think, all of us actors and non-actors alike, because he does often like to put non-actors in front of the camera, sort of stop thinking and just be as present as possible in the urgency of the circumstance. Absolutely. Well, as you said, it's of course based on a true story. And since filming, there have been numerous wildfires in California and across the world.

7:28Has that added another sort of layer of poignance and meaning and pertinence, I guess, to you.

7:35America Ferrera:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, one of the reasons to do the film, I think for all of us, was how it resonated with real life events. You know, it's based on a real fire. And one of the characteristics of this fire when you watch the movie is kind of, it's unprecedented and unpredictable nature. You know, you really see how humbling nature is to humans when we really, you know, are outside of what we know or understand about how nature behaves. and because the fire was unprecedented and because a lot of the fires we are experiencing in real life are also unprecedented. You know, it feels like facing a real present reality, you know, of what we're dealing with increasingly and probably will continue to deal with.

8:34Absolutely. Well, I think it will resonate with the audience deeply. You spoke earlier about loving theatre and throughout your prolific career, you have played such an array of interesting, authentic women who convey a really sort of strong point of view. Is there a character from your amazing career that you've played who you feel especially aligned with or similar to? That's interesting.

9:00America Ferrera:I feel like whenever I'm playing any character, I spend a lot of time amplifying the parts of me that are similar to that character. but I think I'm constantly changing as a person and as a human and you know moving on to new parts of myself that I really want to explore but I will say that I do feel like every character that I've played or just about every character that I've played like really leaves a mark you know, and I think that there's like a part of me that always belongs to that character. Like I could find Betty, you know, in a second or even like I played Helen Chavez, who's a real life woman in the film about Cesar Chavez that Diego Luna directed and being in her energy and kind of finding the parts of me that were, I think, aligned with her and her energy was so powerful and so grounding.

10:07And I didn't think of myself as, you know, similar to Helen's energy.

10:14America Ferrera:But once I spent so much time kind of embodying that, I found that part of myself. And now she's always with me, like that Helen part of me. And I can go back and access that. And I feel like that's true for Mary. Like I had to find different parts of myself in this character that I hadn't explored before on screen. And I think that's the beauty is that I feel changed by almost every character that I take on and embody. And like I find new parts of myself, different rooms inside of my house that I'm like, oh, she's there too. And they get to stay with me in that way. And I get to find them. And so I always feel close to them, even if, you know, not no one single character feels like, oh, that's me or that's America.

11:08America Ferrera:You know, I think they are they're all kind of parts of a whole. But that sounds fascinating that they unlock different aspects of yourself with each role that you play. You sort of discover new things about yourself. But aside from that discovery, what at this stage in your career does a script or a role have to offer you to really sort of draw you in or captivate you or say, yes, that's 100 % me? Yeah, I do think that primarily for me at this stage, it's about what do I get to explore? Like, what's the new thing I'm getting to do in this role that I haven't already done? And what's going to be exciting and what's going to be a discovery for me?

11:50You know, I want to do things that grow me and stretch me in new ways.

11:56America Ferrera:So that definitely feels like always kind of the number one priority when I'm taking something on. And then, you know, I think it's what is the kind of question that the overall or questions that the story is asking, like in general? And are those interesting questions to me, you know, because you're going to sit in them, you know, and you're going to explore them for months or however long it takes to film the movie or the show. So they have to be interesting questions being asked with the piece. And of course, you know, it's always who's in it. You know, at this stage in my career, I'm very lucky to get to have more discernment about what I say yes to and who the other people are in it with me is such a major factor.

12:54America Ferrera:And for this one, I've been such a big fan of Paul Greengrass for such a long time. And so I was really excited to get to work with him and Matthew. And we just had an excellent experience and such a, you know, hard to believe when you watch the movie. But we had fun in between the intensity. The horror. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, we were all just really, I think, really intrigued by what we were exploring. Well, I think a common thread in your career is championing underrepresented voices in marginalized communities. Do you feel now, years, decades into your career, that you are seeing or discovering scripts that are more fulfilling and feel more representative of the people, the characters that you want to see on screen?

13:49America Ferrera:It's an interesting question because, you know, I've never made any of my choices based on representing, you know, populations of people. I think that that aspect of my career has always been present just based on who I am. You know, somebody who is, you know, rare to see in our industry and even rarer when I began over 20 years ago. Luckily, a little less rare now, but, you know, not quite common. And I've never made my choices based on, you know, who I want to represent. I've always, even from the time I was very, very young and had very few options to kind of discern what I wanted, you know, who I wanted to work with.

14:44America Ferrera:And I didn't really have the luxury of saying no very early on, but I kind of always claimed that for myself. Even when I was like very young and kind of dirt poor and couldn't afford my books in college, like I would turn things down that didn't feel right for me. I had to feel a deep personal full body yes to this is a character that I want to step into and explore. And this is a story that resonates with me. And that's always how I've made my decisions, starting with Real Women Have Curves, which, again, like for me, I just knew that girl. I knew that mom and daughter. I knew that culture. I knew what the film was exploring.

15:35America Ferrera:And it wasn't about like stepping in and representing other people. It was about telling a story that I deeply resonated with. And I was so young, I was 17 years old and had no idea what would happen with that film or who would watch that film or how people would resonate with it. It was really beautiful to discover how many people resonated with that movie and how many people felt seen and represented. You know, that was a byproduct of telling a story that was so deeply specific and true for the people who were telling the story. So that's always how I've approached my work, even before I really ever even understood any level of discernment or agency as an actor to make my choices.

16:29America Ferrera:I just kind of always followed my gut and that was always just led by what speaks to me. And it was never really about, here's a point I want to make or here's a representation that, you know, that's a part of things and it's a beautiful part of things, but I feel like that's a little outside in. And for me, I always want to be coming at something from the inside out. And that starts with full, fleshed out, authentic, delicious characters that I'm excited to play. Totally. Well, I think even if it wasn't a choice in that way, the fact that you have delivered and stepped into these fully fleshed out characters that we haven't often been able to see on screen and because of that choice in the way you've played those roles, so many of us have felt seen and it has shifted the dial a lot.

17:19So I think, you know, we're very grateful for that. Yeah.

17:22America Ferrera:And, you know, I understand what you're saying and I don't. It's like it's a nuance. You know, it's I think what I will say is that even from a very young age, when I stepped into these roles, whether it was in Real Women Have Curves or Ugly Betty or Sister of the Traveling Pants, like. even at a super young age, I understood that my job was to advocate for my character, that my job was to make that character feel as real as possible. And to say to someone, hey, this isn't working, or this doesn't ring true, or this doesn't feel like it has quite the amount of dignity that this character should have.

18:05America Ferrera:I think in that way, advocating for each character that I, a Latina woman, you know, stepped into, you know, in essence, it's advocating for everyone who sees themselves in that character, you know, but I really saw my job as the actor was to be the advocate to this character and make sure that, like, they're displayed with as much fullness and humanity and contradiction as anyone else on screen. And so maybe because those representations are so rare for so many of us to see ourselves in that kind of fully fleshed out human way, when we say representation, that's what we mean. Not just seeing someone who looks like us, but seeing somebody who feels like us, who gets to have a full life and breath of characters that we've seen other people get to be on screen, right?

19:02America Ferrera:But maybe not so much people who are like us. Totally. So let's take it back to the beginning. Can you remember that sort of defining moment when you fell in love with storytelling and your craft and realized, this is what I want to do? I was really young. I was five years old, which is crazy because my daughter's five. and I kind of watch her with hawkeyes. I'm like, what does she love? What is she like falling in love with? And my son's already seven. So, you know, it's like they become who they are so quickly. That's such a shock. But I have that point of reference because I felt that when I was five years old, my first kind of exposure to performance as art was watching my oldest sister who was in fifth grade and I was in kindergarten do the yearly fifth grade play that like all fifth graders had to do.

19:59America Ferrera:She didn't really want to do it, didn't want to be in it, but she did it. And it was like the Wizard of Oz and she was playing, I don't know, like monkey number three or whatever, flying monkey number three. And I remember my whole family went the night of her performance. And I remember sitting there and as the lights went down and the stage lights came up and young people were on the stage telling this story, like my body just became electric. And it actually like what I felt was like just this seething rage and jealousy that like nobody had asked me to play. Like I was so jealous and I literally was crying.

20:41America Ferrera:My mom's like, what is wrong with you? I'm like, nobody asked me to be in the play and I want to be in the play. And that was the first time I remember being like, I want to do that. And I think when I was, I was still in kindergarten when I said to my mom, I'm going to be an actress and I'm also going to be a human rights lawyer and a veterinarian and I'm going to adopt all the dogs at the pound. So there were a lot of things I wanted to do when I was five, but one of them was already at that point I knew how much I resonated with performance and that I wanted to be an actress storyteller all of the above and who have been the sort of greatest influences and helped you achieve that goal you know it's so interesting I would honestly say like I feel like my teachers in school like I was a public school kid I grew up in Los Angeles in the Los Angeles Unified School District and my only access to arts and to the opportunity to perform was whatever was available to me in public school you know so so I'm particularly devastated every time I hear about you know arts programs going away in public schools because, you know, how else was I ever going to discover my passion or get to get to experience it?

22:09And I always credit, you know, this one teacher in in the elementary school I went to,

22:16America Ferrera:Calabash Elementary School in Woodland Hills, California, Miss Rodriguez, who was a fifth grade teacher. And she insisted on putting on and directing this fifth grade play every year and making all the fifth graders participate. And of course, that was my first exposure, watching my sister do that play. But then it was like, oh my God, I couldn't be in fifth grade soon enough. I knew that in fifth grade, I was going to get to do this play, and that was all I was living for. But actually, before fifth grade, when I was in third grade, again, another teacher in my sister's middle school, Mr. Protho, who was an English teacher, not even a drama teacher, would put on a school play open to the whole school.

23:07America Ferrera:So not just like the kids in drama club, but everyone in the school to audition for a Shakespeare play every year. And because he was passionate about Shakespeare and he wanted to teach kids Shakespeare through doing the plays. And my sisters who were in middle school were going to audition for it. And I was still in third grade in elementary school. And I begged to go. I was like, please, please, can I come with you? And they were like, no. Well, my mom was like, you have to take her. And they're like, fine, but sit in the back and don't say anything. And I don't know, I don't even remember how or at what point I made the decision.

23:47America Ferrera:But I just remember I went over to Mr. Proto and I said, can I audition for you? And he was like, sure. And he gave me like the, you know, first scene of Romeo and Juliet, which was the Samson and Gregory. And I had no idea what I was saying, but I didn't know how to read. I was a very good reader. And then before my sisters knew it, they like looked up and I was on stage auditioning. And they're like, what is she doing up there? And I got cast in it. I got cast as the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet. And I would get out of school and I would run to the junior high and be there for rehearsals. And my sisters were so mad because their little annoying sister was around.

24:29America Ferrera:And also because I got a better part than them. Yeah, quite. And so that was my first play. But again, it was like Miss Rodriguez, Mr. Protho, every drama teacher that I had in public schools who like worked so hard to make these opportunities. I'm going to tear up. It makes me so emotional. But all these teachers who went above and beyond to provide these opportunities to me and to others who just otherwise there would have been no access. And my mom didn't have, you know, money or time to get me to like some special expensive after school program. And so I really discovered my passion and my talents there.

25:17America Ferrera:And, you know, the kind adults who give you the time of day and see something in you and it doesn't take much, right? It doesn't take a lot to impact a young person and make them feel seen. And I did feel seen by a lot of my teachers and they made me feel like I had something to offer. And so they made me, you know, they helped me believe in myself. And so I give a lot of credit to a lot of the teachers I had. Absolutely. Well, it's funny. I was speaking to Gillian Anderson last week, another guest on this podcast, And we had a very similar conversation about the significance and power of these teachers who fundamentally changed the course of your life by instilling self-belief and teaching you things that you didn't expect and the generosity of their time and their efforts, as you said.

26:09So shout out again to all of those amazing teachers who have helped us get to where we are today. You spoke earlier about also at the tender age of five wanting to be a human rights lawyer. Not many five-year-olds have that awareness and empathy and ambition. Where did that ambition come from and who sort of taught you that empathy and those skills?

26:32America Ferrera:Well, I'm sure that I had learned about Martin Luther King or something, you know. It was like we read a book about him or studied him. And I remember it just making like such an impact. And I remember feeling so proud to be an American and to live in a country where people had fought for equality and civil rights and racial justice and all of the above. And feeling, you know, like it was my duty as an American to further those causes. And on the other hand, I also was the daughter of immigrants and very young, like experienced, you know, a lot of challenges that my parents would go through financially.

27:30America Ferrera:and, you know, I could see inequality, you know, I could see that all things were not equal and that, you know, someone with my color skin would be treated differently than someone with a different color skin. And like, you know, kids are very perceptive and they see all of those things. And so I feel like it was something in the like, being given this story of what and who America was and believing it, but also experiencing such contradictions in my own life and feeling like, oh, we have to keep fighting, you know? And I think that that sparked something for me very young where I, you know, and maybe I was just like born kind of a fighter.

28:20America Ferrera:I love to fight, not fight, but you know, I love to push on things and insist upon things like justice and fairness and equality. So yeah, I don't know. That one's a little harder to pinpoint other than it was just something that I really identified with. Well, it's been such a huge part of your career in terms of fighting for justice and campaigning. Do you feel a huge sense of responsibility to use your platform and the reach you have to drive positive change? Yeah, absolutely.