America Ferrera Thrilled With 'Barbie' Oscar Nom, Bummed About Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie Snubs

By Emily Richardson | Film | January 23, 2024 |

By Emily Richardson | Film | January 23, 2024 |

This morning, America Ferrera received her first ever Oscar nomination for her supporting role as Mattel employee Gloria in Barbie. Entertainment Weekly immediately got the 39-year-old actress on the horn and asked how she was feeling. America said she was experiencing “waves of emotion and disbelief and overwhelm.” She continued:

“It’s so surreal and a dream come true for me,” Ferrera says, the shock palpable in her voice. “I can so viscerally remember being a kid watching the Academy Awards and watching Halle Berry win, watching Julia Roberts win, and just dreaming one day that I would be in that room. It’s a lot to process. It’s exciting to say the least. I think words kind of fail.”

America and her husband were headed out the door to drive their kids to school when she found out she was nominated. After that, she decided to get back in bed with her iPhone to “take this news lying down.”

Barbie also scored nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song (“I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?”), Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. But count America as one of the many people surprised that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were snubbed for Best Director and Best Actress:

“Their work in both of those categories was phenomenal and in my book [they] deserve to be acknowledged for the history they made, for the ground they broke, for the beautiful artistry,” Ferrera says. “They’re my girls, and I want to see them celebrated for their amazingness, so that part of it is definitely bittersweet.”

I enjoyed Margot as Barbie, but I’m not up in arms about her lack of nom. Keep in mind, though, I haven’t seen Nyad or Maestro, so I can’t speak to whether or not she was more deserving than Annette Bening or Carey Mulligan.

But I am pissed about Greta’s snub. Sigh. I guess the Academy only had room for one female in the director category: Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall. To be fair, it would be, like, totally over-the-top to also nominate Greta or Past Lives’ Celine Song. And didn’t the Oscars already give two lady-director-noms in 2020 (Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and Chloé Zhao for Nomadland)? That oughta cover their asses for at least another half-century.