America Ferrera Says It’s ‘Insane’ That She’s Considered ‘Hollywood’s Version of Imperfect’

America Ferrera shared some reflections on the way she was described early in her career.

In an interview with Elle published on Thursday, November 30, the Barbie actress, 39, opened up about her journey through Hollywood and the way her body became a topic of conversation. Many of Ferrera’s early roles were centered around her physical appearance, calling attention to her so-called “curvy” frame.

“What’s so insane is, you go back and look, and I had a very average-size body,” Ferrera told Elle. “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.”

She continued, “I was Hollywood’s version of imperfect, which seems so ridiculous. I don’t feel alone in that either. There are so many women who were called brave, just because they are people in bodies.”

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In 2005’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Elle notes, Ferrera’s character, Carmen, was the only member of her friend group who worried that the titular jeans wouldn’t fit. From 2006 to 2010, Ferrera starred in the lead role on ABC’s Ugly Betty, which won her an Emmy Award. The premise of the show involved comparing Ferrera’s character, Betty Suarez — a plain-looking assistant at a fashion magazine — to her thin, glamorous coworkers.

In hindsight, Ferrera said she feels like she was pigeonholed into a certain type of role. Going forward, she’s determined to break free of that pattern.

“What I continue to wish for my career, and women’s careers and people of color’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. “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.”

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In Barbie earlier this year, Ferrera received praise for her portrayal of Gloria, a human who finds herself in Barbie’s world and delivers a heartfelt monologue about the societal pressures faced by women. Her next project will be directing her first feature film, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, based on a book by Erika L. Sánchez.

“This does not feel like a movie that could have been made 22 years ago,” she told Elle of the film. “It’s a version of the coming-of-age story that I’ve never seen a young Latina get to inhabit. It’s deeper, more complicated, messy.”