America Ferrera Filmed Her Iconic “Barbie” Speech “30 To 50” Times In Full

America Ferrera’s iconic speech in the Barbie movie was undoubtedly one of the best parts of the film — but it took a lot of work to get it absolutely perfect.

While looking back on the filming process, America says that director Greta Gerwig mentioned the speech to her before she had even read the script.

“She said, ‘I wrote this monologue for Gloria, and I’ve always imagined you saying this,'” America told Vanity Fair. “While that was flattering, it also felt like pressure in the nicest way.”

She continued, “I read the monologue, and it hit me as powerful and meaningful. It also felt like, wow, what a gift as an actor to get to deliver something that feels so cathartic and truthful.”

But because there was so much meaning behind the speech, America says it felt like a “pivotal moment” that she “didn’t want to mess up.”

When it actually came time for filming, some of that pressure disappeared, though, because Greta surprisingly gave America “so much freedom” while delivering the speech.

America explained that for many scenes in the film, Greta had written things in a “very specific way that she heard a very specific way with particular cadence in a particular speed or a particular inflection” — but that wasn’t the case for the speech.

“I was a bit surprised when Greta really pushed me to be as real and grounded as possible,” America said.

She continued, “It was interesting that I initially felt that we wouldn’t just go as straightforward and real with it as we did, that I assumed that there might be a tone that maybe made it, I don’t know, I guess easier for people to hear or to swallow. Greta really didn’t want that. She wanted it to just sound like the truth.”

America was given the chance to “completely make it [her] own” over the course of two days of filming — which added up to what “felt like 500” takes.

“It was probably 30 to 50 full runs of it, top to bottom,” she said. “By the end, Ariana [Greenblatt] recited the monologue to me because she had memorized it because that’s how many times I had said it.”

She added, “It’s one part of a much bigger scene with lots of characters in it. I had to do it many, many times for other people’s coverage and to get through the whole scene.”