America Ferrera Talks Film,TV, And Introspection

Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera recently spoke with the San Jose Mercury News, and she’s quite frank as usual. She’s quick to admit that her high school years were not very happy. “I had a really rough time through high school. I don’t think I liked myself very much. High school is a very hard place to like yourself. It’s easier for some people, but it wasn’t very easy for me.”

Join the club, America. I’ve just about come to the conclusion that nobody had an easy time in high school. But,apparently, Ferrera has always known where she wanted to go, even before high school. “I’m very much in awe of how young children have such bravery to dream so big. They just don’t question it,” she says. “I never questioned it. I used to lie in bed and say, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get there. I just know I’m going to.’ I was, like, 10 and thinking, ‘What is taking so long? Why has my life not started?’”

America is about to turn 24 in April (as is her character, Betty), and although she’s enjoying success, she’s also looking inward.

“There is no possible way someone standing on the outside could know what I’ve been through in my life,” says Ferrera. “Sure, it looks like a Cinderella ball. It’s an amazing show, and the fame and the awards and recognition, but those are just the side effects of what, for me, is truly fulfilling. I work really hard for something I’m really proud of. ”

There’s kind of a calm about it for me,” she continues. “There are so many ways to become frightened of your own success. It’s a big learning lesson in questioning ‘Why do I do this and what is it for?’ And what do I want out of it?”

More after the jump.

She told the Mercury News that, although happy that the show has been embraced by the gay community, latinos, and parents of young girls concerned about body consiousness, there is only so far she can go as a role model. She says that gasp! she no longer reads message boards or blogs.

Oh, dear. Shame, that.

Ferrera has recently returned to the set of Ugly Betty, but in general knows no more than we do about where the show is going. (If she would read Ugly Betty News, she’d get all kinds of juicy spoilers).

About her latest movie “Under the Same Moon”, in which she plays non-Spanish-speaking American who tries to earn money for her brother’s college tuition by smuggling Mexican babies over the American border, she says she didn’t expect much when she first heard of the project. She was sent the script, then called “Immigrant Boy”, and read it at bedtime as a sleep aid.

“I thought I’d be asleep by Page 4. It usually works,” she recalls. “Of course, at 2 a.m., I’m on the last page, crying. I just really connected to it on a very human level.

“I just thought it was a perfect way to get a human connection to what immigration is all about,” she adds. “Yes, it’s deemed a crime and it’s illegal, but to call this 9-year-old boy who wants to be with his mother a criminal, something about that seems not complete.”

Ferrera is an important voice coming out of Hollywood these days. Here’s hoping that her meteoric rise just continues (as far as she wants it to go)

Source: San Jose Mercury News