Barbie actress America Ferrera made the bizarre claim that she’s the only Latin actor getting work and that “opportunities don’t exist” for Latina and Latino actors in Hollywood.
America Ferrera appears alongside Hillary Clinton in 2008. Photo Credit: Veni from New York, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In an interview with BBC, Ferrera asserted, “While I enjoy an incredible career full of opportunity that I have fought hard for and worked hard for, I know that the vast reality for Latinos in this industry is that it’s as difficult today as it was 16 years ago, or even 22 years ago when I started out.”
She added, “Latinos are the largest minority group in the US, making up about 20% of the population. But that hasn’t translated into on-screen representation.”
HI MOM! – In Disney and Pixar’s “Elio,” America Ferrera lends her voice to the smart and super-confident Olga, who runs a top-secret military project.* While Olga is working to decode a strange signal from outer space, her son Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab) is inadvertently beamed up to an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide and mistaken for Earth’s ambassador to the rest of the universe. Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature film “Elio” is directed by Adrian Molina (screenwriter and co-director of “Coco”) and produced by Mary Alice Drumm (associate producer of “Coco”)—the intergalactic misadventure launches in theaters March 1, 2024. © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
“They are anomalies, these moments where Latinos get to shine,” Ferrera asserted. “And of course we’ve had those moments, but I feel like we’ve all been waiting a really long time for the watershed.”
“It’s complicated to reconcile the almost fairy tale story of my journey with what I know is the reality for the vast majority of people like me,” she detailed.
America Ferrera via TED YouTube
Later in the interview, Ferrara also claimed, “It’s 2023, and I’m still the only one which I think, you know, points exactly to the issue. It took so long because the opportunities don’t exist.”
“How lucky and fortunate I have been in my career to be coming up in a time where I was met with the sparse opportunities that exist for a young Latina actress to get to be the lead… much less a lead that is self-determining and is not represented as a as a poor immigrant criminal, or a hyper-sexualized Latina,” she relayed.
America Ferrera as Gloria in Barbie (2023). Warner Bros. Pictures
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Speaking specifically to role in Barbie, she claims it makes underrepresented communities visible.
First, she detailed, “Feelings like anger and resentment and righteousness, or even joy and silliness and fun… to get to witness those expressions [on screen] is a cathartic feeling. And for so many of us, there are so many of those experiences that have never been shared in mainstream media.”
We often have to divorce ourselves from parts of ourselves that are not welcome,” she continued. “The truth is that so many of us underrepresented communities are still just fighting to be visible.”
America Ferrera via Harper’s Bazaar UK YouTube
Ironically, Ferrera would point out how useless diversity panels are, “I have a proposal! We take all the money people spend on doing diversity panels and just use all that money to hire women and people of colour to make things.”
“It’s really not that complicated… it isn’t about charity. It’s about good business,” she concluded.
America Ferrera as Gloria in Barbie (2023). Warner Bros. Pictures
Ferrera’s comments could not be farther from the truth. As she notes, she defies her own comments starring in everything from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to How to Train Your Dragon to this year’s blockbuster Barbie.
There are plenty of other examples as well. Warner Bros. recently released Blue Beetle, which featured actors Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Damián Alcázar, George Lopez, Adriana Barraza, Belissa Escobedo, Elpidia Carrillo, and other Latin actors.
Pedro Pascal has had an even more illustrious career than Ferrea starring in Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, Wonder Woman 1984, and more recently HBO’s The Last of Us.
(L-R): Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Grogu, and Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Diego Luna played Cassian Andor in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and went on to reprise the role in Andor. He’s also lent his voice talents to DC League of Super-Pets, and played a leading role in Narcos: Mexico as Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo.
Antonio Banderas recently had starring roles in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Uncharted on top of his illustrious career that includes providing his voice to Puss in Boots in both the Shrek and Puss in Boots franchise as well as playing Zorro in multiple films.
Other Latin actors such as Danny Trejo, Salma Hayek, Oscar Isaac, Benicio del Toro, Edward James Olmos, Sofía Vergara, Eva Mendes, Michael Peña, Andy Garcia, Jimmy Smits, Zoe Saldaña, Benjamin Bratt, John Leguizamo, Morena Baccarin, Ricardo Montalbán, Jennifer Lopez, Raúl Juliá, Héctor Elizondo, Luis Guzmán, Michelle Rodriguez, Cote de Pablo, Jenna Ortega, Esai Morales, Rita Moreno, Eiza González, Cameron Diaz, and more have found lasting success in Hollywood.
Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector in Marvel Studios’ MOON KNIGHT, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gabor Kotschy. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of Ferrera’s comments?
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