From: Monsters and Critics
Ugly Betty star America Ferrera has spoken out about prejudice in Hollywood, admitting that she once dyed her hair blonde in a mock attempt to fit in.
The 25-year-old actress made her comments in the latest issue of US magazine, Bust.
She said: ‘There was a part in this movie with this director who shall remain nameless… They were holding off on the female role, depending on if the male role was Latino or not.
‘They didn’t want to put two Latinos in the same movie, because then it would be ‘a Latino movie’.
‘So… I thought if I dyed my hair blonde, I could play anything.”
She added: ‘It was obviously very sarcastic: is it really the colour of my hair or the colour of my skin that’s going to stop you from giving me this role that I could be really good at?
‘So I stripped my hair. I looked f****** crazy.’
Talking abut her role as dowdy Betty in the hit US sitcom, she said: ‘I heard about Ugly Betty – before I was even cast in the role – when Salma [Hayek, the show's producer] came to me and said: ‘I want you to do this’.
‘I just had an intuition that this … show was going to really connect to an audience and I am the right person to do this.
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