Barbie: America Ferrera’s Monologue Was Recorded Over 30 Times

america ferrera plays Gloria — a character who works at Mattel – in Barbie, and stars in a scene with a striking monologue about women’s relationship with society and the impositions made on them. It was not easy, however, to reach the final result. The actress told vanity fair which took between 30 and 50 takes, spread over two recording days, to make the scene.

I had a feeling it was 500 [vezes]. I’m sure it wasn’t. It was probably between 30 and 50 tries, start to finish. At the end, Aryan [Greenblat] recited the monologue to me, because she memorized it, as I had repeated it so many times.

ferrera explained that the director Greta Gerwig gave her a lot of freedom to record the scene. The monologue was written specifically for America: “It was one of the first things the Greta mentioned before I even read the script. She said ‘I wrote this monologue for Gloria, and I always pictured you saying that’. At the same time that I felt honored, I felt pressured in a positive way.”

Each take was different from the other. gerwig it only demanded that the lines be spoken truthfully and not necessarily in a tone that would make them easier to digest, said the actress. “There were takes that ended in anger. There were takes that ended in laughter.”

For america ferrera, the favorite line of the entire monologue was one thought up by herself and Greta, during a conversation: “Always be grateful.” “It internalized the feeling that we are lucky to be here,” concluded the actress.