Congratulations are in order for America Ferrera, who was announced as a nominee in the Best Supporting Actress category at the upcoming Academy Awards for her role as Gloria in the blockbuster Barbie. An Oscar nomination, especially one’s first, is certainly no small feat—and, thankfully, Ferrera’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars get it.
Following the announcement of the award nominees this morning, Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn FaceTimed their longtime friend as a group to celebrate, Ferrera revealed. “They FaceTimed me as a group right away,” she told Variety. “It’s wonderful to be celebrated and held up by these women who I’ve had the honor of growing up with in the industry and being loved and cheered on and supported by them. Which we all do for each other. They’re amazing, and such a gift in my life.” Of her (deserved) acknowledgements this awards season, Ferrera added that “Every moment feels like another unbelievable pinch-me moment.”
Variety reports that Ferrera was snuggled in bed alone this morning, watching the broadcast of the nominations being read on her phone as her husband drove their kids to school. “There was a moment where I wasn’t sure if I had made it up,” she said. “And then my phone started blowing up, so I figured that I must have heard it right.” She added, “I still haven’t really been able to get in my feelings because I’m still on, like, the top layer of ‘I can’t even believe that this is real,’” she said.
The four women of the Traveling Pants starred together in 2005’s original film and its 2008 sequel, and have remained close since. And speaking of women supporting women, Ferrera addressed the elephant in the room: despite Barbie being the highest-grossing movie of 2023 and earning eight nominations in total (including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, who played Ken), both director Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, who played the titular character, were left off the list of nominees for Best Director and Best Actress, respectively.
“They’re my girls, and I want to see their incredible, amazing work celebrated,” she told Deadline. “They made history. They set a new bar. They not only broke box office records, but made something that resonated around the globe, and the impact of what they made is, and will continue to be, felt in our culture. I think I join a lot of people in wanting to see them acknowledged for that.” She added to Entertainment Weekly “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. They’re my girls, and I want to see them celebrated for their amazingness, so that part is definitely bittersweet.”
Of Gerwig specifically, Ferrera said “Greta has done just about everything that a director could do to deserve it. Creating this world and taking something that didn’t have inherent value to most people and making it a global phenomenon. It feels disappointing to not see her on that list.” As for Robbie, “What Margot achieved as an actress is truly unbelievable,” Ferrera said. “One of the things about Margot as an actress is how easy she makes everything look. And perhaps people got fooled into thinking that the work seems easy, but Margot is a magician as an actress in front of the screen, and it was one of the honors of my career to get to witness her pull off the amazing performance she did. She brings so much heart and humor and depth and joy and fun to the character. In my book, she’s a master.”
We love to see Ferrera not only supported, but also supporting women that matter to her. Hopefully what is not lost in the Gerwig and Robbie snubs is Ferrera’s own professional accomplishment: “It’s so surreal and a dream come true for me,” she said. “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.”
