America Ferrera Says It’s 'Insane' That Hollywood Considered Her Body Type 'Imperfect' 20 Years Ago
America Ferrera is opening up about the “ridiculous” body standards she’s faced in Hollywood throughout her career.
Speaking to Elle for its 2023 Women in Hollywood issue, the “Barbie” star reflected on how her roles in hit projects like “Ugly Betty” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” hyperfocused on her body type.
“What’s so insane is, you go back and look, and I had a very average-size body. And so the idea that people were looking at me and saying, ‘That’s curvy’ is crazy. Not that I care, but it’s like, that’s insane that we thought that was so groundbreaking,” Ferrera explained.
The actor added: “I was Hollywood’s version of imperfect, which seems so ridiculous.”
Ferrera says she doesn’t feel “alone” in enduring the unfair expectations.
“There are so many women who were called brave, just because they are people in bodies,” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ferrera, who is Latina, shared that her “wish” is that Hollywood stops trying to “regulate” actors to fit into certain stereotypes.
“What I continue to wish for my career, and women’s careers and people of colour’s careers, is that we don’t have to exist inside of these boxes or these lanes — that we don’t have to be relegated to represent just the thing that the culture wants us to represent,” she said.
Ferrera most recently starred in 2023’s “Barbie,” which highlights the double standards that women face in a patriarchal society.
She went on to declare herself a woman “who doesn’t fit into stereotypical Hollywood.”
“I want to be more of who I am as a person, and to get to make art that doesn’t fit into any of the boxes and isn’t about the dominant conversation people have wanted to have about me because I’m a woman who doesn’t fit into stereotypical Hollywood,” Ferrera explained.
“Barbie” broke massive box office records over the summer, including earning the highest-grossing global opening for a film directed by a woman.