America Ferrera Talks “Barbie” Movie and Feminism

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: America Ferrera, welcome to the program.

AMERICA FERRERA, ACTRESS: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: How surprised were you at the huge impact that monologue had, your speech in “Barbie,” which was already such a successful film?

FERRERA: It was amazing to see how it hit the audiences and what the responses were. I know that when I first read the script, everything before and after and including the monologue —

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERRERA: We have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re all extraordinary. Always doing it wrong —

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FERRERA: — I know that I was just blown away. And it was all just so unexpected. And as a woman, I was just so excited, you know, that, you

know, it’s the “Barbie” movie that no one asked for. That no one thought we needed, you know.

AMANPOUR: And kind of subversively, seriously feminist.

FERRERA: Yes. Yes.

AMANPOUR: And nobody believed that. They thought it was just going to be another telling of a really incredible doll that so many millions of girls around the world played with.

FERRERA: Yes. And it could have been that, you know, it very easily could have been something bright and fun and exciting, and probably would’ve made a lot of money and been successful. But what Greta and her partner, Noah, did with the script, and then Greta is the director, creating this world, it was so generous and it was so exciting. And, you know, as an adult woman, mother, you know, to get a third of the way into the script and then to meet this adult real flawed, you know, insecure, but having ambition woman like struggling to be, you know, so many things to so many different people, it was so exciting to feel like we had a voice in the story. And, you know, that — I felt that way, independent of being asked to be a part of it, just as a woman in the world.

AMANPOUR: How did you come to get this role?

FERRERA: Yes.

AMANPOUR: And did you — were you a bit nervous about accepting a role about a plastic doll?

FERRERA: Well, I had no desire to be in a “Barbie” movie. I didn’t grow up playing with Barbies. I didn’t — you know, the idea of a “Barbie” movie wasn’t necessarily exciting to me. But the idea of Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie being behind it was exciting to me. And so, when I read the script, it was just all right there. Like, every expectation. I didn’t even know what to expect, you know. But everything that you imagined is just totally turned on its head. And like I said before, like, seeing how many perspectives were included. And that this wasn’t just, you know, a bubblegum pop movie for, you know, people who are already fans of “Barbie” or who, like, want to see bright colors or really want to see Ryan Gosling in no T-shirt and Margot Robbie wear really cute clothes, it really had something to say.

AMANPOUR: As you said, it was very fun as well, as well as the seriousness. We were going to watch a clip of your character, Gloria, and daughter, Sasha.

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FERRERA: I love rollerblades. Where are we going?

MARGOT ROBBIE, ACTRESS, “BARBIE”: Barbie Land.

ARIANA GREENBLATT, ACTRESS, “BARBIE”: What? Mom, are you really going to let Barbie take you and your tween daughter to an imaginary land?

FERRERA: Yes, and you want to know why? Because I never get to do anything. I didn’t even go on that cruise I won at your school raffle because I

didn’t have enough vacation days and your dad’s allergic to sun.

GREENBLATT: What about dad? You can’t just leave him.

FERRERA: He’ll be fine.

GREENBLATT: Yes, yes. He’ll be fine.

ROBBIE: Ready for fun?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: What was that scene like to do? What was the — you know, the impact of all of that?

FERRERA: I loved that — shooting that whole sequence and what that whole sequence of Gloria driving the car and the car chase and then getting on rollerblades, and it’s such wish fulfillment. But to put a grown adult mother, working, wife, woman in the middle of that, who gets to be the center of the adventure and who does finally get to say, like, I’m going to do what I want to do, and this is the crazy thing I want to do. It was so fun. And as a woman, as a mother, it resonated so deeply. So, yes, we’re having fun, but we’re also talking about something so true in our culture.

AMANPOUR: And so is zeitgeist. Right on the zeitgeist.

FERRERA: Yes. Yes.

AMANPOUR: It’s almost like a Trojan Horse —

FERRERA: Right.

AMANPOUR: — for those who are afraid of feminism.

FERRERA: Yes.

AMANPOUR: I think. Certainly, some women still are. They don’t even like to say the word.

FERRERA: Right.

AMANPOUR: A certain number of men are still, you know, worried about it. The idea of doing what you all did through humor and through fun must have been kind of the way to make it even more accessible.

FERRERA: Absolutely. I mean, I think in a way to bring people into something that is maybe uncomfortable for them. You have to make it a party. You have to make it irresistible. You have to make it more fun over here than what’s happening over there so that people perk up and listen and show up and then get exposed, you know, underneath the laughter to something that they weren’t expecting to get hit with. And I mean, that’s the brilliance of Greta. And I know there’s been conversations about like, well, this isn’t very, you know, advanced. It’s not saying anything we don’t already know. First of all, there are plenty of people who don’t know. There are countries around the world that banned this film for what it is and what it’s saying. There’s plenty of young women and people of all genders who’ve never had the words or thought about patriarchy and the role of women in the way that this film illuminates. And I think that we’re in trouble if what we need is for everybody to be at an advanced entry level to what we want them to understand. Like, we’ve got to meet each other where we are and have a conversation, whether — whatever it’s about. Inviting people in and not trying to speak down to people and say, well, this is the right way to talk about your experience as a woman.