L.A. native America Ferrera burst onto the scene back in 2006 as the titular star of Ugly Betty (“ugly” in a Hollywood sense – so an attractive woman with glasses and braces). The ABC comedy drama wasn’t her first great performance, and as we’ve seen since it was nowhere near her last, so if you’re a fan and looking for more of her work there’s plenty to check out. Here’s our list of the 10 best America Ferrera movies and TV shows.
10. The Dry Land
This moving film follows a veteran named James (Ryan O’Nan) as he returns from Iraq and has issues readjusting to smalltown life. Ferrera plays his worried wife who, despite her best efforts, struggles to truly understand what her husband has been through. He soon finds solace in an army buddy with whom he reconnects, but even as the pair lean on each other, James can see that the scars the war left are too deep to heal without real help. Ferrera is empathetic as the caring wife, really making the audience believe that she’s floundering thanks to her husband’s post-duty issues, and was even nominated for a an Imagen Award for her performance. The film itself is moving in parts, but doesn’t feel like it treads any new ground.
9. Our Family Wedding
Much of this romcom really missed the mark, but Ferrera is one of the few bright sparks that shines brightly throughout what is an average film at best. She plays the bride-to-be in the eponymous wedding, but as is often the case in a movie about marriage, the happy couple aren’t the source of the tension: in this case, it’s the fathers of the bride and groom (Forest Whitaker). As the big day approaches, the groom’s dad (Lance Gross) and the bride’s father (Carlos Mencia) take on increasing prominence, and their dislike of each other threatens their children’s nuptials. The jokes are poor, the message cliche, and the attempts at fracturing racial tensions in this country laughable, but Ferrera is pretty great, so there’s that.
8. The Good Wife
Although Ferrera was only in four episodes of the beloved CBS legal drama The Good Wife, her turn in the show about a lawyer forced to return to her career after her husband’s political scandal was one of the best guest appearances by any non-main cast actor on the show. She plays Natalie Flores, an undocumented immigrant, college student-turned-nanny, eventual day-trader, and also brief love interest of Eli Gold – who helps her to gain her citizenship. Ferrera appeared in season 2, just after her big break in Ugly Betty, and showed off why she was such hot property with a scintillating performance.
7. César Chávez
Diego Luna directed this biographical film about one of America’s most important — yet often forgotten — heroes of the organized labor movement. Michael Peña is the eponymous character, and the movie chronicles his attempts to form the United Farm Workers in the face of brutal hostility from the landowning classes and racist government officials. The film focuses on a few key moments from the historical record, although it also gives a great account of the union man’s personal life, including his relationship with his wife, Helen – played by Ferrera. She is truly fantastic in the supporting role, and while the film has (fairly) been accused of being a hagiography, the performances make it worth watching.
6. Real Women Have Curves
This 2002 family comedy drama was Ferrera’s first feature film role, and was a definite early sign of her supreme talent. A nuanced and often beautiful movie, it follows Ana (Ferrera), an L.A. teen on the edge of high school graduation with college dreams that don’t align with her family’s economic situation. However, thanks to a well-meaning teacher, it seems she may have the chance to head across the country on a scholarship to Columbia, but her mother wants her to stay and help the family business. What could be a barrel of cliches ends up being a beautiful exploration of burgeoning womanhood and the strained relationship between mothers and daughters. A truly brilliant watch.
5. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
This coming of age comedy-drama is as heartwarming and influential as the 2001 book it’s based on, aided by excellent performances from its four female leads. The movie follows a quartet of teenage friends as they embark on their first summer away from each other: Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) – who is staying in their hometown to work, Lena (Alexis Bledel) – spending the holiday in Greece with family, where she falls for the wrong boy, Bridget (Blake Lively) – who is headed off to soccer camp, and Carmen (Ferrera) – who’s traveling to see her estranged father in South Carolina. The one thing keeping them together? A pair of denim pants that seems to magically fit all of them, despite their different body shapes. A genuinely great film that is well worthy of its place on this list.
4. Barbie
Barbie may not have been perfect, but there’s no doubt this year’s summer blockbuster had some incredible performances from its brilliant ensemble cast – from the leads Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, to those with smaller parts like Michael Cera and Issa Rae. The film follows stereotypical Barbie (Robbie) as she attempts to get out of Barbie Land after her idyllic life in the perfectly pink world begins to fall apart. Ferrera is excellent as a Mattel worker (and mother struggling to connect with her Gen Z daughter), who heads back to Barbie Land with Robbie before helping to save it from a newly “inspired” Ken.
3. Ugly Betty
Ferrera picked up an Emmy for this show, and boy was it deserved. Ugly Betty follows Betty Suarez (Ferrera) – an unfashionable woman from Queens who manages to snag a high-profile gig at one of the world’s most famous and influential fashion magazines. The show was wildly successful at the time, having a cultural impact that’s hard to overstate, and with a fandom that was as rabid as any K-pop band’s. Throughout the series we saw Betty grow and change, while also being introduced to the wider world of the show, where we got to meet her philandering boss, Daniel (Eric Mabius), the magazine’s dangerous, coercive creative director (Vanessa Williams), and Betty’s one true work friend, Christina (Ashley Jensen). A brilliant series with a real legacy that outshines the Colombian telenovela it’s based on.
2. How to Train Your Dragon
Some animated kids’ films just hit all the right marks – to the point where they’re basically flawless. How to Train Your Dragon is one of those movies. The film follows Hiccup, a small viking teen in the mythical village of Berk. Hiccup wants to be a dragon slayer like his heroes, but when he injures an incredibly rare Night Fury dragon, he finds he doesn’t have the will to finish the job. Instead, he forms a deep bond with the creature as he tries to heal it, and soon finds out that the animosity between dragons and vikings may not be all it seems. Ferrera voices Astrid, Hiccup’s fellow dragon trainer and love interest, and brings the perfect blend of sass, humor, and heart to the role. A beautiful, brilliant film.
1. Superstore
Like her politics, a lot of Ferrera’s work has progressivism at its core, and while at first the NBC show Superstore appears to be a standard workplace comedy, it does a fantastic job of capturing the strain of life as a laboring employee in modern America. The show follows the staff of Cloud 9, a fictional big box store that has low prices, high profits, and sad, strange employees. Ferrera is Amy – a floor manager who’s unfulfilled by her work but can’t leave due to her family’s economic situation. She’s surrounded by a cast of zany characters who all help to make this series compulsively watchable and laugh-out-loud funny, all while managing to make you really feel something. A bingewatch-worthy show.
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