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America Ferrera painted face white for audition

Written by . Published: February 27 2016

Latin actress America Ferrera was so desperate to land a movie role, she bleached her hair blonde and covered herself in make-up to lighten her skin colour.


The Ugly Betty star has encountered racial discrimination her whole career, and when she was a teen eager to break into the industry, she went to great lengths to try and convince casting directors she could fit the part.


"I was 18 and putting myself on tape for a movie I really wanted," the now-31-year-old recalled to the New York Times. "I got that phone call: 'They cast a Latino male in another role in the film; they're not looking to cast (a Latina).'"


America refused to give up and took drastic action before shooting her audition tape.


"I defiantly bleached my hair blonde, painted my face white and made the audition tape," the actress laughed. "I never heard back.


"I just remember feeling so powerless. What do you do when someone says, 'Your colour 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."


The star, whose parents hail from Honduras, reveals it wasn't the first time she had been boxed in by her heritage.


"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?'" she remembered. "I had no idea what she was talking about.


"'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 realise 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?'"


And it wasn't just casting directors who were blind to America's acting potential - even her agent during her time as an up-and-coming star failed to help her realise dreams of pushing the boundaries of Latinos in Hollywood.


"I had just won (a top award at the Sundance Film Festival), and he (my manager) wanted me to audition for the Latina chubby girl in a pilot," she continued. "She wasn't even the lead; she was just the sidekick...


"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!"

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