To view behind the scenes footage of America Ferrera’s photo shoot with W, please visit www.wmagazine.com.
“I mean, of course I want to be at a weight where I’m happy. There are times when I go to the gym and really try, and there are times when I just don’t. I gain a pound; I lose a pound. But I think I’ve developed a really good sense of when I’m doing something for myself as opposed to when I’m doing something because of other people’s expectations of me. And honestly, even if I wanted to be anorexic, I just don’t have what it takes. After four hours of being anorexic, I’d be like, ‘It’s been four whole hours! Feed me!’”
ON THE TABLOIDS ANNOUNCING THAT SHE AND BOYFRIEND RYAN PIERS WILLIAMS GOT ENGAGED…
“It’s totally not true! And his mom called me and my sisters were calling me, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding? Did you not think I would tell you first?’ And then I put out a statement that it wasn’t true, and that became a whole news story. So now it’s news when something doesn’t happen? Like, news flash: California did not get hit by a hurricane today.”
ON NOT BEING OFFERED LEADING ACTING ROLES DESPITE HER RECENT SUCCESSES…
“When it comes to envisioning an actor in a role that they haven’t seen them in, people in this business can be a little uncreative. No one is willing to take a gamble…It’s been more about developing my own material, finding roles that I would like to play and figuring out a way to get those things made.”
ON TRYING TO ENJOY THE MOMENT…
“The hardest part of this year has been learning to enjoy it. It’s almost like a full-time job reminding myself to live in the moment and not look for more, more, more…I see now that people who make movies, this world of creative geniuses that I grew up idolizing, are just normal people who wanted to do something and made it happen. Everything that’s happened to me in the last year has only made me feel more like a normal person, more human, but in the most beautiful way.”
ON HAVING ‘A MINI NERVOUS BREAKDOWN’ AFTER HER FIRST SHOW BIZ EXPERIENCE ON THE DISNEY CHANNEL MOVIE GOTTA KICK IT UP…
“I just felt really empty. I had achieved my dream, and it wasn’t totally fulfilling. I still had school problems, and I still had boy problems. My life was still my life. I guess I had been waiting to be turned into a swan.”
ON BEING HONDURAN AND GROWING UP IN A CAUCASION NEIGHBORHOOD…
“As early as second grade I remember feeling really different and isolated. I had the hugest crush on a boy, and my best friend had a crush on him too. One day he said to me, ‘I like your best friend more because she’s paler and she has freckles.’ And it was right then that I began to feel like, Oh wow, I’m different.”
ON NOT FITTING IN WITH THE LATINO COMMUNITY…
“I mean, I grew up in the Valley. All my friends were white Jewish kids. So the Latino kids thought I was this white girl.”
ON HAVING FIVE SIBLINGS…
“Growing up, I never had a ton of friends. I always had two or three, but when you have four sisters and a brother all a year apart, you don’t really need anyone else to play with…I learned the naughty words before anyone else in my class. And I think I avoided many of the pitfalls because I got to watch them live through it.” O
N HER PARENTS NOT SUPPORTING HER DREAMS OF BECOMING AN ACTRESS…
“Acting was not something that they came to this country to have me do… For a time I thought I could be a lawyer. As a kid I even went to law camp at UCLA. They had us watch My Cousin Vinny, which was great. But then we went to the courthouse, and we had to do these mock trials, and once I saw what it really meant to be a lawyer, I realized that it wasn’t for me. I thought it was like in the movies, like, ‘You can’t handle the truth!’ That kind of thing.”
ON BEING APPROACHED BY SALMA HAYEK TO STAR AS ‘UGLY BETTY’…
“Honestly I never saw myself doing TV, but Salma was so convincing. Salma is the kind of person who could sell you, like, a used stereo. She promised me that it would be done in the right way, and I just trusted her.”
ON GETTING A COLLEGE DEGREE…
“Acting is something I knew I wanted to do long term. But not going to college was not an option. I think it probably helped me as an actress as well, because actresses need real-life experiences to draw from.”
ON WHAT HAPPINESS IS…
“Happiness is something that you have to decide to have in your life. No amount of accolades can make you a happy person, and learning that as young as I did was a gift.”
ON HER AMBITIONS…
“When there’s a film I want to do, sleep doesn’t matter. Part of me would love to be sitting in the sun in Italy, but I’d be crazy by day four.”
