America Ferrera, best known for playing Gloria in Barbie, did not mince any words when she was honoured at the 5th Annual Critics Choice Association Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television. In her acceptance speech, she speaks out after receiving the Trailblazer Award, saying that “in a day and age where discourse and conversation are failing to create connection and empathy and understanding, the storytelling we do becomes more vital, as TV and film have the power to transport people outside of their entrenched logic and into their hearts.” The star, who has a history of political activism, recalls her conversation with a scholar on the history of authoritarianism who said the US is “barrelling towards a crisis point in our country and therefore in our world. And we are not a cute little side note to civil society – we are civil society. Artists and the stories we tell have a role to play in this moment.” She continues, “We have an obligation to point not only to what we are against but also to create and to demonstrate the world that we are for and the world that we want to live in and to not depict one another as charity cases, as people who need us to have dignity.” “We are born with our dignity and no one will take that away from us,” the actress adds.
‘Barbie’ star makes political speech on award show
Published on: October 25, 2025 10:45 PM