America Ferrera delivered her epic 'Barbie' monologue "30 to 50 times".
America Ferrera put a lot into her epic monologue
The 39-year-old actress delivers one of the standout moments in Greta Gerwig's blockbuster as she perfectly captures the contradictory demands women face every day as they strive to be everything to everyone, and she has revealed the scene as a whole was shot over two days.
She told Vanity Fair magazine: "It felt like 500 [takes]. I'm sure it wasn't. It was probably 30 to 50 full runs of it, top to bottom."
Ferrera explained that both she and Greta were keen to make sure there were "no targets to hit" with her delivery as Gloria, and she ended up acting out many different versions.
She added: "I think that part of it was — this was also based on Greta's direction — neither one of us went into it feeling like it's got to grow and crescendo to this big moment where you burst into tears or you're laughing so hard you cry.
"There were no targets to hit. It was much more a moment-to-moment drop in. Truly, every take was very different.
"There were takes that leaned into anger. There were takes that leaned into laughter. It really did, over the course of filming, find a shape.
"It was about just staying as present in the moment and just seeing really where the words would take it."
She felt "a little bit of healthy pressure" with the pivotal scene, and she was surprised with the way the filmmaker wanted it to come across, after initially wondering if she would need to keep it rooted in "the tone of Barbie Land".
She said: "I was a bit surprised when Greta really pushed me to be as real and grounded as possible and not make it feel like it's the truth, but it's Barbie Land pink truth.
"It was interesting that I initially felt that we wouldn't just go as straightforward and real with it as we did, that I assumed that there might be a tone that maybe made it, I don't know, I guess easier for people to hear or to swallow.
"Greta really didn't want that. She wanted it to just sound like the truth."
Tagged in America Ferrera Greta Gerwig