America Ferrera was left dumbfounded after a famous director mistook her for actress Gina Rodriguez immediately after she made a Latina mix-up joke at the Golden Globes last month (Jan16).
The former Ugly Betty actress joined Telenovela star Eva Longoria to present a gong at the annual prize-giving. The duo decided to use their time on stage to poke fun at the person responsible for mistaking Ferrera for Rodriguez during the nominations ceremony in December (15), and incorrectly labeling the photo on the Golden Globes' official Twitter account.
"Hi, I'm Eva Longoria, not Eva Mendes," Longoria quipped, as Ferrera added, "I'm America Ferrera, not Gina Rodriguez."
"And neither one of us are Rosario Dawson," Longoria joked, prompting her co-presenter to state, "Well said, Salma (Hayek)", as Longoria ended the brief exchange with, "Thank you, Charo (Fernandez)."
Apparently the bit landed on deaf ears at the ceremony though, as Ferrera reveals a director at the event commended her for winning the Golden Globe last year (15) - a prize taken home by Jane the Virgin beauty Rodriguez.
"Interestingly enough, I came off the stage and got confused for Gina Rodriguez right away," Ferrera told chat show The Talk on Monday (22Feb16). "I won't name names but it was a director. And they congratulated me on my win the previous year. And I said, 'You were not paying attention!' And then the next day I got confused for (Fast & Furious star) Michelle Rodriguez. I mean it happens incessantly. We don't look anything like each other!"
Ferrera added that while she realizes not every Latina gets confused for movie stars, it still applies to citizens around the world.
"I was actually in Nevada meeting with some state legislators last week and there were four Latinas in the state assembly and they were saying that when one of them had a child, all of them got congratulated," she recalled. "And so it doesn't just happen in our industry it happens across the board, so I think people related (to the Golden Globes bit)."