America Ferrera Addresses Criticisms and Complaints About Her Epic Barbie Monologue Claiming It Simplifies Feminism: ‘We Can Know Things and Still Need to Hear Them Out Loud’

Warner Bros. hit Barbie ended 2023 as the biggest movie of the year, and one of its most iconic moments was America Ferrera’s epic monologue from Gloria.

The 39-year-old actress played single mother and Mattel executive Gloria, who gives an impassioned speech to Margot Robbie’s title character about the struggles of womanhood.

While many fans were moved by the speech, others felt it oversimplified feminism, and now Ferrera is speaking out.

The actress – who recently reunited with her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants stars – opened up about the criticism The New York Times.

‘We can know things and still need to hear them out loud. It can still be redemption,” Ferrera began.

The actress – who recently reunited with her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants stars – opened up about the criticism with The New York Times

“There are a lot of people who need Feminism 101, entire generations of girls who are just now coming up and have no words for the culture they grew up in,” she said.

“Including boys and men who may never have thought about feminist theory,” she continued.

The actress acknowledged, “If you’re well-versed in feminism, it may seem like an oversimplification, but there are entire countries that have banned this film for a reason.”

“To say that something that may be fundamental or, some people would argue, fundamental feminism is not necessary is an oversimplification,” she said.

“To assume that everyone knows and understands the experience of being a woman on the same level is an oversimplification,” she said.

While the actress embarked on a global press tour for Barbie in the lead-up to the July 19 theatrical release, that was cut short somewhat by the SAG-AFTRA strike, which prevented her from talking about the film during the strike, which lasted from July 14 to November 9.

Asked whether the end of the strike would pave the way for a flood of movie offers in the wake of Barbie’s runaway success ($636.2 million domestically, $1.441 billion worldwide), she said she would be happy if that happened.

“I would be very happy if this moment of starring in highly visible films gave me more opportunities to play the kind of roles and create the kind of stories I want, but that’s hard to predict,” Ferrera admitted.

“There are a lot of people who need Feminism 101, entire generations of girls who are just now coming up and have no words for the culture they grew up in,” she said.

The actress acknowledged, “If you’re well-versed in feminism, it may seem like an oversimplification, but there are entire countries that have banned this film for a reason.”

“Assuming that everyone is at the same level of knowledge and understanding of the experience of being a woman is an oversimplification,” she said.

While the actress embarked on a global press tour for Barbie in the lead-up to the July 19 theatrical release, the SAG-AFTRA strike was somewhat curtailed and meant she was unable to talk about the film during the strike, which lasted from July 14 to 9 November.

‘I have had many moments in my career with wonderful successes that did not necessarily lead to more opportunities. “I’ve learned to just slow down and drop that expectation,” she added.

When asked why she hasn’t gotten the kind of roles she craved for years, she said she was never considered for Latina roles.

“To be honest, for most of my career I haven’t been considered for roles that weren’t written specifically for Latina,” she admitted.

“And so that in itself limits what people want to think about you and what’s available to you. The gift of some Greta [Gerwig] What was presented to me is that she did indeed write the Barbie role as Latina,” she said.

“I guess if she hadn’t written it as such, I might not have been the person they went to. But even though the role was written Latina, it was not a Latina role,” she said.

“Being Latina wasn’t the point of the character. She had to be a full human being and a representative of so many things. It wasn’t a ‘check the box’ kind of casting. That’s starting to change somewhat, at least for me,” she said.