There’s an audience that America Ferrera was surprised her viral Barbie monologue resonated with: teenage girls.
In an interview with People published on Wednesday, the Barbie star mentioned that a “young girl” used her character Gloria’s speech about the impossible standards set on women to audition for a theater program.
To Ferrera, it was “hilarious” yet “super sad that 11-year-old girls resonate with that monologue and already feel like they know what I’m saying.”
Ferrera also recently chatted with The New York Times about the powerful speech, noting that she was able to include some of her own thoughts about womanhood in the monologue while reworking it alongside the film’s director and co-writer Greta Gerwig.
“Greta asked me, ‘Why don’t you just tell me what you would say? Write it in your own words. What would you add?’ Not every director starts out by inviting actors to rewrite their work. Some of what we talked about made it into the script,” recalled Ferrera.
She continued, “The line, ‘Always be grateful’ came out of that conversation with Greta. She expounded on it adding, ‘But never forget that the system is rigged.’ There were many versions that we did. We ended in tears. It ended in laughter, it got big, it got small, and I was able to do that because I really trusted Greta to know what would be right for the film.”
Though many moviegoers have expressed being able to relate to Gloria’s words, some Barbie viewers believed the monologue was an oversimplification of feminist ideology. When asked about this by The New York Times, Ferrera said, “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. Also, boys and men who may have never spent any time thinking about feminist theory.”
She added, “If you are well-versed in feminism, then it might seem like an oversimplification, but there are entire countries that banned this film for a reason. To say that something that is maybe foundational, or, in some people’s view, basic feminism isn’t needed is an oversimplification. Assuming that everybody is on the same level of knowing and understanding the experience of womanhood is an oversimplification.”
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