'Ugly Betty' star Ferrera content with success

LOS ANGELES — America Ferrera couldn't wait to get out of the Valley.

Nothing against the 818, says the star of TV's "Ugly Betty," who grew up in Woodland Hills, Calif., and attended El Camino Real High School, but she had plans. "The Valley reminds me of my childhood," says Ferrera, who appears in the just-released film "Under the Same Moon."

"I had a really rough time through high school. I don't think I liked myself very much. High school is a very hard place to like yourself. It's easier for some people, but it wasn't very easy for me."

Ferrera chalks up her troublesome high school years, in part, to a rare single-mindedness of purpose about who she was and what she wanted to do.

Simply put, long before she entered her teens, Ferrera knew she wanted to go to college and she wanted to act, not necessarily in that order. When people asked about her backup plans, Ferrera would shake her head.

"I'm very much in awe of how young children have such bravery to dream so big. They just don't question it," she says. "I never questioned it. I used to lie in bed and say, 'I don't know how I'm going to get there. I just know I'm going to.' I was, like, 10 and thinking, 'What is taking so long? Why has my life not started?' "

Times have indeed changed. The woman who utters these words from the terrace of a Beverly Hills hotel is a University of Southern California graduate with a degree in international relations. She's also an Emmy, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award winner. In its two seasons, the telenovela-inspired sitcom "Ugly Betty" has become something of an international phenomenon.

In April, Ferrera turns 24, and she's still asking questions. The last two years have been prosperous and fulfilling, and they also have made the actress look inward.

"There is no possible way someone standing on the outside could know what I've been through in my life," says Ferrera. "Sure, it looks like a Cinderella ball. It's an amazing show, and the fame and the awards and recognition, but those are just the side effects of what, for me, is truly fulfilling. I work really hard for something I'm really proud of.

"There's kind of a calm about it for me," she continues. "There are so many ways to become frightened of your own success. It's a big learning lesson in questioning, why do I do this and what is it for? And what do I want out of it?"

She is equally even-keeled when the topic of being a role model is broached. "Ugly Betty" has been embraced by the gay community and Latinos alike. Women, and their young daughters, have lauded the notion of a TV heroine who isn't a size 0 and who doesn't have the snappiest taste in fashion.

Ferrera, though, has stopped reading message boards and blog notices. She's grateful and gracious to fans who embrace underdog Betty's struggle as their own, but there's a limit to how much of a crusader Ferrera is willing to be.

"I don't make every decision in my life based on, 'Am I doing what's right for the Latino community? Am I doing what's right for young women everywhere? Am I doing what's right for curvy girls in Hollywood?' I don't want to be responsible for that," she says. "I want to do what's right for me, and I think that's what everyone should do."

Outside of "Betty," Ferrera has kept plenty busy. In addition to "Under the Same Moon," she appears in the just-released Spanish-language hostage drama "Toward the Darkness," which she also produced. That film began as a friend's short film while Ferrera was at USC.

Last summer, she filmed the sequel to "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" based on the Ann Brashares novels, with fellow "Pants" alums Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn and Blake Lively. She also spent a portion of the summer campaigning for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

She recently went back to the set of "Ugly Betty," which returns to ABC on April 24. In the first original episode since the conclusion of the Writers Guild of America strike, misfit fashion magazine secretary Betty Suarez will celebrate a birthday.

"I don't really know what else is going on in Betty's life," Ferrera says. "That's one of the reasons I'm anxious to get back."

Ferrera basically has a cameo in "Under the Same Moon," playing a non-Spanish speaking American who tries to earn money for her brother's college tuition by smuggling Mexican babies over the American border. Ferrera's character, Martha, ends up transporting 9-year-old Carlitos (played by Adrian Alonso), whose quest to track down his mother in Los Angeles is at the heart of the film.

Ferrera was sent the script when it was titled "Immigrant Boy." Put off by the title, she tried, unsuccessfully, to use the script as a sleep aid.

"I thought I'd be asleep by page 4. It usually works," she recalls. "Of course, at 2 a.m., I'm on the last page, crying. I just really connected to it on a very human level."

She filmed her part in May 2006, shortly after the premiere of the "Ugly Betty" pilot. Ferrera was far less of a known entity then, although "Same Moon" director Patricia Riggen knew the actress' work from her 2002 debut film, "Real Women Have Curves."

"Basically, I felt that she was the only one I could have who would represent that generation of Latinos," says Riggen. "In the movie, the characters show us that the struggle doesn't end for Latinos when they get a passport. (Ferrera's) character was doing something not good for a good reason, which makes her very human."