In an interview with People, Ferrera discussed her response to young girls in relation to her character’s speech about the ridiculous expectations society places on women.
America Ferrera was taken aback by the reaction of teenage females to her viral Barbie talk.
The Barbie actress revealed in a People interview that was released on Wednesday that a “young girl” had utilized her speech about the impossible standards placed on women to apply to a theater program.
Ferrera found it “very sad that 11-year-old girls resonate with that monologue and already feel like they know what I’m saying,” but it was also “hilarious.”
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ferrera discussed the impactful speech and mentioned that, while rewriting it with the help of co-writer and director Greta Gerwig, she was able to incorporate some of her own ideas about women.
“Why don’t you just tell me what you would say? Greta asked me. Compose it using your own terms. What further information would you add? Not every filmmaker asks performers to rework their own scenes in the beginning. Ferrera recalls that “some of what we talked about ended up in the script.”
“Always be grateful,” she went on, “came out of that conversation with Greta.” ‘But never forget that the system is rigged,’ she continued. We created numerous iterations. We broke up crying. It culminated in laughter, and I was able to make it huge and little because I had complete faith in Greta’s judgment about what would work best for the movie.
Despite the fact that many moviegoers said they could identify with Gloria’s remarks, some Barbie viewers thought Gloria’s monologue oversimplified feminist theory. “There are a lot of people who need Feminism 101, whole generations of girls who are just coming up now and who don’t have words for the culture that they’re being raised in,” Ferrera remarked in response to a question about this from The New York Times. In addition, males who might not have given feminist philosophy much thought.
“It might seem like an oversimplification to those who are well-versed in feminism, but there are entire countries that banned this film for a reason,” the speaker continued. To state that something that could be fundamental to feminism—or, as others could put it, basic—is unnecessary to simplify things. It is simplistic to assume that everyone has the same level of knowledge and comprehension of what it is to be a woman.