[theme music playing]
So much fun!
-Cheers! -Cheers!
[Reese] Hi!
I'm doing a show highlighting powerful, ambitious women
in different fields.
Let's go back to... Stop the frame.
Okay, how did I do?
And I would love to share with you
what makes these women so inspirational to me.
-[gasps] -Love, Reese.
[Reese] I'm here at the University of Southern California today
where my friend America Ferrara went to school.
After being cast in Real Women Have Curves,
America's career skyrocketed,
and then she landed the starring role in Ugly Betty.
In the role Betty Suarez, America won every major acting award,
and now she's producing, starring in, and directing Superstore.
She has also worked as an activist,
fighting for immigrants' rights,
women's rights, and numerous other causes.
We will not go from being a nation of immigrants
to a nation of ignorance.
[Reese] The way she uses her voice
to amplify important issues is so inspiring to me.
-Hi! Babe. -Hi! Good to see you.
Thank you. Aw!
Oh, my God, this is so great,
I was so excited to come down here.
Have you ever been on this campus?
Well, I made a movie here once.
Oh! Did you shoot parts of Legally Blonde here?
Yes! I don't know if I should spoil it, but we were not at Harvard.
-You were not at Harvard? -We were at Southern California.
[America] One of my sisters came to USC, and I remember dropping her off,
and just, like, falling in love.
-[Reese] It's just so beautiful. -[America] Yeah.
I remember in college, I had a hot pot and I made, this is so gross,
but I made, like, ramen noodles and then, like, an hour later, made hot chocolate.
That kind of vaguely still tasted my ramen noodles. [laughing]
[America] That's classy.
-Wait, where did you go to college? -I went to Stanford.
I didn't graduate, and so, every time I come back on a college campus,
I'm always, like, "Ah, I should go back. It'd be so fun."
You know, it is so fun. I had to leave, um, college
right towards the end. I was, like,
two sem-- I was, like, a year from graduating.
-Oh, really? -And Ugly Betty came up.
I had to take a leave of absence,
and I did, and six years later, when I was 29,
and Betty was done, I came back to school.
-No, you didn't. -I did, and it was amazing.
And so-- People always say, well, you know,
school's wasted on the youth, and--
-Did you feel that way? -A hundred percent.
Like, I couldn't help but look at the 17-year-olds around me, and say, like,
"This is really important stuff!"
Like, "You need to know this."
"It's not just a GE! It, like, really pertains to you."
-Did they-- Did they listen to you? -No!
But then you're like, almost 30-year-old in class telling kids that...
Aren't you like that lady from Ugly Betty?
And then I graduated.
-[Reese] Wow. And what was your degree? -[America] In International Relations.
-[Reese] Amazing. -[America] Yeah.
-I'm so inspired by you. -Thank you.
I used to watch every speech you ever gave.
-That's so sweet. -And I'm so moved by
just how much you care, it comes through in your words,
your empathy, but it sounds like it was part of your life experience
of seeing people. Not just having people see you,
-but seeing other people. -Yeah, and I do think that started
in my childhood, you know. I think
when you watch-- Grow up watching your parents struggle
to keep the lights on, or put food in the fridge,
when those basic needs are threatened,
you don't forget that, and you learn to have more empathy
for anyone in situations where they're doing their best.
-You came from a big family, right? -Big family.
-Here in LA? -Here in LA,
-San Fernando Valley. -Okay.
Um, I'm the youngest of six kids,
and we're all, there's six of us in, like, seven years,
-so, we're just, like, bam, bam, bam. -Wow.
My parents are immigrants from Honduras.
Different levels of college education in Honduras,
both middle class in Honduras,
and they came here, and my mom worked,
you know, up to three jobs at a time,
working, you know, at some points,
in a fast-food restaurant, in hospitals,
just really, just getting whatever work she could.
Um, and my parents split up when I was around nine.
My father went back to Honduras,
and so, he wasn't really a part of my life from then on,
and so we were raised by our single mom
who worked her butt off, and was determined to get
all six of her children in college and out of college,
and so, for the majority of my life,
she worked as a director of a housekeeping department at a Hilton Hotel.
All the women she worked with were also immigrant women
making ends meet, and doing a really hard job,
and that's the kind of climate we all grew up in.
And me and all my siblings, all of our first jobs were in the hotel.
I was a waitress on the weekends, I did the 5:00 a.m. breakfast shift.
She wanted us to have that experience, to know, like, how hard the work was.
I remember so distinctly a moment
when we were coming home from the grocery store.
My mom, she'd just gotten her check and I just remember,
like, that trip to the grocery store was always about, like, making it last,
and making the check stretch as far as she could,
'cause we knew it would be however many weeks till the next check,
and the next trip to the grocery store.
I remember driving home,
and finding the courage to ask her, like, "Are we poor?"
-And, um, and... -So you said, "Are we poor?"
Yeah, and she said to me, like,
it just depends who you are asking.
If you compare what we have to say, you know, your cousins
who live in a different zip code and go to private schools,
and, you know, um, then maybe.
But if you ask the women I work with on a daily basis
who make minimum wage for back-breaking work,
and are struggling, then there's a lot we have,
and we're rich in so many other ways.
And, I mean, was so young, but I remember
that was the first, sort of, conversation about perspective
that I'd ever been given. That really trained me to see people.
And so, when I came to college,
I'd already had the incredible opportunity and fortune
to act in Real Women Have Curves, which was my first feature film...
-Right. That was such a good movie. -...at 17, which was...
[Reese] And you got a lot of attention for that movie.
[America] Yeah, it was a whirlwind.
Premiering Real Women Have Curves at the Sundance Film Festival,
winning an award, a special jury award for acting...
Like, I didn't even know what Sundance was!
-[Reese chuckling] -I'd never seen myself on a screen.
-Yeah. -But I was headed to college,
so it was, like, great! This is all wonderful,
-but, like, I'm going to school. -[Reese chuckling]
You know, and, um, and so that's what I did. I came to school.
Should we go into your dorm room and surprise somebody?
-[laughing] -I can't even remember which floor it was.
-You wanna go see? -We should look at your dorm room, yes.
-I'll show you. -Let's walk down memory lane.
-I'm gonna drive you. -You're gonna--
Okay, well, that's probably good, 'cause I don't know where I am going.
I bet on is the right... [chuckles]
-The right function. Okay, let's see. -Oh, no, I have very...
[Reese] These heels are not doing you in any favors. [chuckles]
-Hold on, here we go. Whoo! -Whoo-hoo!
[America] I'm gonna try not to take down any students on bikes.
-You're welcome. -Don't take down any coeds.
Okay.
[Reese] Oh, my God, America, I used to ride a bike around my college campus
and I got in the worst bike accident ever, fully just bit it
in front of everybody, I was so embarrassed.
I feel like this is a part of college life.
It's so hard that first year, it's so terrifying.
It is terrifying,
and my first year was really, um, really lonely and sad.
I had taken the first semester off
'cause I was promoting Real Women Have Curves.
I was, like, not fully just in school, and I wasn't fully just in my career,
I just felt sort of, like, in between and isolated.
-I know. -And I was learning
a lot of really hard stuff.
I was studying international relations,
and, you know, when they talked about the Rwandan genocide,
and I didn't know what the heck anybody was talking about,
I was, like, "I don't know anything,
"and I'm never gonna know enough, and I'm never gonna catch up."
And half-way through my first semester,
I, like, was convinced that I had to quit being an actress,
and that I had to, like, decide to do something serious and real,
and productive and giving back in my life.
And I just was so convinced that, like, that's what I had to do,
not what I wanted to do, but what I had to do.
Um, this is my first dorm.
-[Reese] "Party"? [laughs] -[America] Pardee Tower, not Party Tower.
-Hold on. -Pardee Tower.
Party Tower.
I know, trust me, it wasn't that Party Tower.
-[Reese] It wasn't? -[America] It was not.
[America] So, here, wait, should I park this thing?
-Yeah. -Okay.
So...
[America] Yeah, this was, like, this was where I came that first semester.
-[Reese] Wow, this is amazing. -And what I was saying was
that, you know, I had...
I was struggling that first semester with feeling lonely and isolated,
and then, what happened was my professor, his name was Professor Andrus.
I went into his office sobbing, saying, like, "I'm going to quit acting,
"and just study, and focus on this,
"and go be a lawyer, or something that, like,
"gives back to the world." I thought he would be, like, thrilled.
Um, but he said, "You know, I mentor this Latina girl,
"and I've never really been able to break through her shell.
"I've never really been able to earn her trust.
"And then, one day, she comes to me, and says,
"'Mr. Andrus, do you really want to understand my life?'"
And he was, like, "Yes." And she said,
"Then come watch this movie with me, it's called Real Women Have Curves.
[Reese gasps]
Again, like, I had no idea that he even knew that I was an actress.
And his mentee said to him, "You come here and you talk to me about
"what I need to do to get into college, and you don't understand
"that I walk through my own door, through my own home,
"and my parents don't understand
"why this matters so much to me."
And so he bought the DVD of Real Women, took it to her parents,
they watched the movie, they talked about the movie,
and then, ultimately, they supported her decision to go to college.
-[Reese] Wow. -And,
you know, at this point, I'm, like, sobbing, and... [chuckles]
You know, he looks at me, and he says, "You know, I tell you this,
"because this movie you did, this character you played,
"gave her that, gave her something to believe in,
"and gave her a representation and a reflection of her own life,
"and it helped her parents see something that they'd never seen,
"and it changed the course of her life."
He just gave me the permission
to be all the things that I am.
I wish I had this America when I was 19 years old.
This is what I would have needed.
Let me ask you a question. Like, growing up,
what was your idea of a Latina woman on film...
-[America chuckles lightly] -...as a little girl?
I mean, non-existent.
I remember watching Stand and Deliver,
I just remember being so addicted to that movie,
and watching that movie over and over and over again,
'cause it was one of the first times that I ever, like,
-saw people who looked like me. -Right.
But they're few and far between, they're few and far between, which is...
Which is not acceptable.
Why isn't there more room for more than one Latina actress
on television at the same time?
Why isn't there room for more,
you know, women female directors?
I do think the public has become more aware of not seeing themselves,
and not being represented, and they are the paying customers.
Right, But it's not easy when the people in positions of power
genuinely don't understand
why it matters that people see themselves.
Mmm-hmm.
You know, and that we see ourselves, and we recognize ourselves.
Not just, "Oh, there's more women." It's, like, what are those women doing?
And what are those women saying? And what are those women wearing?
Yeah, and what are their jobs?
And what other relationships to one another?
-Are they moms? Are they not moms? -Or grandmothers. Yeah.
-Do they like each other? -Are they competing?
Are they catty? Are they-- And it's not to say that there's only one version
that's right. But we've been pigeon-holed for so long
into these stereotypes,
and that's what we have to battle everyday.
Oh, sure. But it helps to have camaraderie,
'cause you don't feel so isolated and alone.
My whole career, I'd really only ever been sent out on roles
that were written for Latino women.
People didn't read a script that said,
you know, "young woman, 20-something,"
and think, "Oh, anyone could play this."
That was the box
that I lived in for a lot of my career, and still do, to some extent.
And when I got the script for Superstore,
the role of Amy didn't have ethnicity,
um, attached to it.
I think that was the first time I was ever offered
a television role that wasn't specified Latino.
Ever.
So, we're headed to see some young people
who participate in the Neighborhood Academic Initiative,
which is a program that I, uh, worked for. I was a tutor.
I remember there was a semester where I couldn't buy my books,
because I didn't have 50 bucks to buy a book I needed.
-And I was like, "I need to get a job." -Yeah.
[students wailing]
-Hello. -Hi.
We have special visitors today.
-Hello. -Hello.
-Hi. Marvin. Nice to meet you. -Marvin.
-You're the tutor? -Yeah, I run
the after-school tutoring here, but I...
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
-Are you a USC student? -Yeah, I'm currently USC student as well,
but, um, at the time, once I'm out of class, I come here and tutor,
which is really great, you know.
That's awesome. That's what I did.
Beginning, you know, I was taking Math class for fun,
and, you know, it's great to help out the community, really.
Like, Math for fun?
-[Marvin laughing] Yeah. -[students laughing]
-Hmm. -[Marvin] Sounds weird, but--
How many people here would take Math for fun in college?
-Oh, one! -There, we got one.
That's good. I'm so impressed.
[America] Does anybody have questions for us?
I mean, you can ask us almost anything.
What are your passions? Where do you wanna go to school?
I want to become a lawyer, specifically entertainment law.
Oh, great.
Because both come from familiar backgrounds as us,
and as you guys are both women in power,
I believe. What is your advice to us as seniors about to go to college?
Oh, my gosh, that's a great question.
I think, you know, it's important to find your passion.
You don't have to be just one thing in life, right?
You can be a lot of different things. And I was an actor for a long time,
and then, I said, "I want to be a producer."
I was, like, "Okay, well, how do I do that?"
Nobody had shown me how to do that, I didn't grow up in the movie business.
So, I was, like, "Well, maybe I should just try," you know? And, um...
And working hard is really the key to everything.
I always know, like, I can always bet on myself,
and I've alway know no one will work harder than me.
So, I always keep that in my mind.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think another part of that,
especially for kids like us, who come from the communities
we come from, um, where so much is at stake all the time, right?
Someone's working really hard to pay for your college tuition,
and your parents worked really hard, or gave up so much,
so that you could be in this position, and maybe you're the first person
in your family to go to college or even dream of going to college,
and so, that can put a lot of weight on our shoulders, right?
If I fail, if I mess up, then I'm disappointing a lot of people.
But the thing I had to realize when I was in college
was that it had to be okay to fail sometimes.
Knowing that no one succeeds without having failures along the way
was one of the most important lessons I ever learned in my life.
-I love watching Legally Blonde, -[students chuckle lightly]
and I remember you were fighting for your dog's mother,
-'cause they were doing lab test... -Yes.
...so like... [continues meekly]
Oh, my gosh. I think you should talk to America who inspires me.
[students giggling]
I learned so much from America's leadership,
because she studied it for a long time here at USC.
You know, you used to tell me about how kids are really inspiring you.
Totally. Young people don't sit around thinking about what's not possible,
they think about what is possible and they imagine that anything is possible,
and the number one thing that it takes to take action
is courage. You have to be the one to say,
"My voice matters, my experiences matter.
"I'm gonna find the courage to use my voice, even if my voice shakes
"the whole time, I'm gonna stand up and use it anyway."
[Reese] Thanks, guys.
[Reese] It's so important that young people see,
you know, graduates of their institution standing up for rights,
and, um, you've done so much to raise awareness
about DACA and the Dreamers.
You know, when it comes to the Dreamers,
um, or even the young people organizing around TPS, Temporary Protective Status,
they led their movement, they started their movement, they led their movement.
It was young, undocumented kids
who took to the streets and stood up and said,
"I am undocumented and unafraid."
-Right. That's incredible. Wow. -That, you know, they didn't sit around
waiting for some big, iconic leader figure to come and show them the way,
they just started organizing and using their voices.
They are the ones who are so close to the obstacles,
they're so close to the challenges,
but they're also the ones who are closest to the solutions,
because their imaginations and their problem-solving
-isn't hindered by, you know... -Old ideas, or...
-[America] Old ideas. -Yes.
Or, you know, what we've been so trained to think...
-Normalize. -...or that can't happen
or things never change...
-Oh, for sure. -...or, you know...
Some of what keeps me up at night
is just thinking about, you know... [sighs]
What are the questions we're not asking yet, you know?
What are the ways that we have not tried yet to understand one another?
I think it really is, at the end of the day,
about relationships and it's about
patience, and it's about listening.
I've had such a nice time getting to know you
through working on TIME'S UP. What was it that inspired you to get,
to sort of go, "Ah, this is my calling.
"I'm supposed to be one of the people here helping with this."
That question is never answered, right? You show up,
you put yourself in the room,
you have the conversations and you're constantly asking, like,
"Am I the right person to be in this room?"
But I think one of the things we're realizing it,
you know, with our work at TIME'S UP, is that
everybody has their own power
and their own, we like to call it our own superpowers, right?
And figuring out, like, what's your unique power and what's the unique access
or opportunity that each one of us has
to add to the collective voice or the collective, you know, um,
hope for the future we want to see.
Do you think it's hard for women to sometimes step up and think,
"No, I'm gonna be a leader"?
Because I think sometimes there's a part innate
in women that's like, "No, not me, her."
You know? And I feel that way all the time. I never wanna
power grab or anything like that. I do better as a collective of women.
-Totally. -It's my nature, I think.
It's been, I think, a really interesting time
where women have had to step up.
And I got tapped on the knee by one of our friends who said,
"Guess what? That part where you don't wanna be a leader?
"That doesn't work anymore."
We are so much more likely to think of the reasons
why we're not right for the job.
Yes, but I didn't really go to a fancy enough school,
-or my education isn't good enough. -Or I didn't graduate.
-I've never led anything. -Or I'm too educated,
or whatever the excuses are that keep us
from being able to raise our hand and say, "I am gonna lead. I am gonna lead.
"I'm gonna lead because that's what this moment calls for."
-Because someone has to lead. -Someone has to...
-And that's hard... -Yeah.
-...but certain thing wake us up... -Yeah.
...and then I think the challenge is, how do we stay awake?
We have our sisters to remind us.
Yes, we have our sisters to remind us.
Whenever I feel like putting things down, I call you and I go,
-"Okay, inspire me." And you do! -I know.
Well, I think we inspire each other, like,
that partnership, that community, that friendship, that sisterhood
-is what keeps us going. -Yeah.
People like to talk about it as, like a, you know,
is this struggle for justice a sprint or a marathon?
And Kamala Harris loved to make it more dimensional and say it's a relay race.
When you have the baton and you have the energy and the power,
and wherewithall to run, you run with all your might.
I love that.
And then you give the baton to someone else so that you get to rest,
and restore, and be around
-for the next day... -I love that, yes.
...because people go back to sleep when they burn out...
-Yeah. -...when they feel hopeless and helpless,
and if we try to go at things alone and we try to fix everything
by ourselves, that's when it starts to feel helpless.
But when we build community around us,
then we have, like, these insurance policies.
Love you, America.
-Aw, I love you too. -[Reese chuckles]
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