America Ferrera Talks About The "Mental Jujitsu" That Latinos Need to Do to Get Their Stories Told in Hollywood

America Ferrera made her mark on Hollywood with 2002's Real Women Have Curves and has been a leading figure for self-love and body positivity for over 20 years.

In an interview on the Latina to Latina podcast hosted by Alicia Menendez, Ferrera reveals that Latinos in Hollywood have to do quite a bit of mental gymnastics to get things that are truly representative of the Latino culture done.

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The acting veteran turned executive producer noted that she had to learn at an early age how to navigate predominately white male spaces in order to get the stories she believed where worthy heard.

Ferrera explained, "I had to learn how to get the idea in without threatening anybody, without making anyone feel bad, without shaming anyone, without calling anyone out. It was sort of learning these mental jujitsu tricks for like, how do I get them to think it's their idea, to see that it's a good idea, to put it in, to keep it in."

She detailed, "And so I feel like I came up learning how to advocate for myself within a very, very complicated power dynamic where I didn't have the power, but I had to get the people who did have the power to make decisions, to pick the better idea. And that is exhausting to say the least. I'm glad I did it. It's worth it, still doing it in my career."

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Ferrera also details what she first thought about the script for the Netflix series Gentefied, which she is serves as an executive producer on.

She said, "I had just never read anything like it before. It was funny. It was stylish." Ferrera continued, "It was just funny and it made me laugh and it felt very representative of many different generations. It excited me. It made me laugh and cry. And I was like, I'm in."

Ferrera and Menendez also discuss Hollywood's unspoken "brown discount" and how studios typically require more of Latino productions with less funds allocated to them. "There is a way in which our 'yes' generally come packaged at a discount. They are often less money, less support, less power, less marketing [and] less faith in general."