America Ferrera spoke on the phone with the “Today” show on Wednesday about her reaction to being nominated for an Oscar and her “disappointment” at the Motion Picture Academy’s snub of her “Barbie” co-star and director.
Ferrera sent her children to school with her husband when the Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday morning. She was home alone, lying in bed, when the hosts nominated her for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
“When it happened, I gasped and I went silent. And there was no one around me who could confirm that what I was hearing was true,” Ferreira told the “Today” show. “So there came a moment like, what is happening? Am I imaging this? And then my phone started going off, that’s when I knew it was true.
Ferrera received her first congratulatory text message “literally half a second” after her name was announced. It belonged to actor and Oscar winner Ariana DeBose. The message was “so sweet and touching,” Ferreira said.
Phone calls came from her husband and her publicist, screaming with excitement at the news.
“We all got together to have a big celebration, which you can really do when you’re nominated for an Oscar for the first time,” Ferreira said.
Ferrera also expressed concern over Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig being overlooked for this year’s Academy Awards, calling the lack of acknowledgment “disappointing”.
“It’s absolutely undeniable what he created, how unprecedented, how unexpected,” Ferreira said. “It was such a brilliant, beautiful, world-shaping, unexpected achievement that it also became a global, cultural and box office phenomenon. I think most people think it deserves that.”
Ryan Gosling, nominated for Best Supporting Actor, also expressed disappointment at being overlooked by the two women. He said, “There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie.”
“No one in the film would be recognized without his talent, patience and ingenuity,” Gosling wrote in a statement. “To say that I’m disappointed that they were not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.”
“Barbie” is nominated in eight categories, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Original Song and Production Design.
The summer blockbuster took in more than $1 billion at the box office as people of all ages flocked to theaters dressed in pink.
