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America Ferrera Once Painted Her Face White for Audition After Being Told a Latina Wasn’t Needed

America Ferrera
Ferrera attends the 22nd Annual ELLE Women in 2015Michael Kovac/Getty Images

Geez. America Ferrera revealed to the New York Times that she once dealt with blatant discrimination while auditioning for a role.

"I was 18 and putting myself on tape for a movie I really wanted," Ferrera, now 31, recalled to the paper in its latest installment about diversity in Hollywood. "I got that phone call: They cast a Latino male in another role in the film; they’re not looking to cast [a Latina]."

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Though still a teen, the Superstore actress saw a glaring issue with that casting call and took matters into her own hands. "I defiantly bleached my hair blonde, painted my face white and made the audition tape," Ferrera revealed. "I never heard back. I just remember feeling so powerless. What do you do when someone says, 'Your color skin is not what we’re looking for?' Let me tell you: Blonde does not suit me. I try not to prove my point on audition tapes anymore."

That wasn't the first — or last — time she encountered discrimination. "My very first audition ever, I was about 16, and the casting director [for a commercial] said, 'Can you do it again but sound more Latino?' I had no idea what she was talking about," recalled Ferrera, whose parents emigrated from Honduras. "'You mean you want me to speak in Spanish?' She's like, 'No. Do it in English but just sound more Latino.' I genuinely didn't realize until later that she was asking me to speak English with a broken accent. It confused me, because I thought, I am Latino, so isn't this what a Latino sounds like? From the get-go of my career I thought, There's a certain box or a certain way that you're seen, which I didn't feel growing up."

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As her career has progressed, the actress has resolutely refused to play stereotypes. "I had just won [a top award at Sundance], and [my manager] wanted me to audition for the Latina chubby girl in a pilot. She wasn't even the lead; she was just the sidekick, with the same joke in every scene," Ferrera recalled to the Times. "I said, 'I'm not going in for that.' When I ultimately left him, he [told] another of my reps, 'Somebody should tell that girl that she has an unrealistic idea of what she can accomplish in this industry.' That was someone I was paying to represent me."

Ferrera is one of many stars to relay their experiences to the Times in its project. Other stars to detail their encounters include Mindy Kaling, Julia Roberts, Eva Longoria, Priyanka Chopra and Queen Latifah.

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