Into the Dollhouse

Into the Dollhouse,America Ferrera is the Cut’s July/August 2023 cover star. She taught a generation of women to reject traditional beauty standards. So what’s she doing in the ‘Barbie’ movie? She plays Gloria, assistant to Mattel’s CEO and lifetime Barbie lover.

Into the Dollhouse

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What is a doll?” asks America Ferrera, head tilted to one side, hands kneading the air. We’re awaiting her second iced coffee of the day, and she’s in the throes of a mini-speech on the semiotics of the toy. “What, across centuries and across cultures, across civilizations, has a doll meant? A doll is a representation of a woman’s deepest intuition.” The original question — “Did you, America Ferrera, whose work represents all that is not Barbie, have qualms about being in a blockbuster about Barbie?” — has been forgotten. Dolls, she reminds me, did not begin with Barbie but have been integral to female play, ceremony, and self-actualization for centuries. Dolls and therefore Barbies and therefore the Barbie movie reveal “deeper meanings in our culture and in our psyche,” she concludes. The coffee comes. Did she answer the question? she asks.

Ferrera’s doll lecture could be a deleted scene from Barbie. In the film, she plays Gloria: mom to a moody teen daughter, assistant to Mattel’s CEO, and lifetime Barbie lover who must help save Barbie Land from the patriarchy. Greta Gerwig, who had admired Ferrera since watching Ugly Betty weekly with her friends in her first post-college apartment, wrote the role specifically for her (later casting Ferrera’s real-life husband as Gloria’s). Still, for Ferrera, getting into the role wasn’t straightforward. The character plays with her daughter’s old dolls when she feels lonely and put-upon by the demands of motherhood and life; Ferrera, however, says she never played with Barbies growing up. The youngest of six children raised by a single mother in the San Fernando Valley, she says the toy’s fantastic life had always felt alien to her. “My cousin had Barbies at her house, and we’d play with them there, but everything — from the Dreamhouse to the Corvette to the pool to the 20 different outfits — felt so inaccessible.” Not to mention that Barbie was “blonde-haired and blue-eyed and perfect. She probably made me feel bad about myself as a kid.”

Khaite Lally Dress in Black Lace, Large Julius Panel Earrings in Gold, and Marion Sandal with Chains in Black Shearling, all available at khaite.com. Calzedonia fishnet tights, available at calzedonia.com.Photo: Emmanuel Monsalve

Production Credits

Photography by Emmanuel Monsalve
Styling byJessica Willis
Hair by Sonny Molina
Makeup by Linda Hay
Manicure by Nori Yamanaka
Set Design by WayOut Studio
Tailoring by Zunyda Watson
Production by Kindly Productions
Interview Location Swan Room at Nine Orchard

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the July 17, 2023, issue of New York Magazine.

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