America Ferrera Reflects on Tearful Encounter with Leonardo DiCaprio
America Ferrera, now an Oscar-nominated actress, revealed that she still gets star-struck by certain actors, despite her success.
During an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, the Barbie star confessed to fangirling over icons like Martin Scorsese and Tom Hanks, whom she admired while growing up.
Recalling a memorable encounter in 2007, Ferrera shared with the late-night host that meeting Leonardo DiCaprio caught her off guard.
“More often than not, it’s someone you had a childhood connection to,” she explained, citing her teenage infatuation with DiCaprio, particularly after watching Titanic multiple times in theaters.
Ferrera recounted attending the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2007 for Ugly Betty, where she unexpectedly crossed paths with DiCaprio. Despite feeling a sense of belonging after winning, seeing DiCaprio left her overwhelmed.
“After saying hello to him, I promptly went around the corner and just started weeping,” Ferrera confessed to Meyers. “My then-boyfriend, now-husband, was with me and was like, ‘I am so embarrassed right now. This is so… like, stop crying.’ And I was like, ‘But it’s Leonardo.'”
Earlier in the show, Ferrera discussed her experience working with her husband, Ryan Piers Williams, in Barbie, where he played her onscreen husband.
She revealed that his casting came about after expressing her admiration for a scene in the script about a “white husband at home learning Spanish,” which resonated with her own life.
Months later, Ferrera found out that writer-director Greta Gerwig had seriously considered casting Williams for the role, and eventually, he joined the project.
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