I realize it's hyperbole to say America Fererra's fallen off the map. She's pretty fresh out of an 85-episode run as Betty Suarez. She was in Our Family Wedding and did voice work in this year's How to Train Your Dragon, too. But other than that, the very generic-looking home-from-the-war story The Dry Land is all she's got lined up this year or in the future:
I want there to be stories about our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I want them to be sobering, but I also want them to be vibrant, and intelligent, and startling. None of this looks like it will be, no matter how much I like America and Melissa Leo.
But Our Family Wedding was the same in its own way, a romantic comedy where the parents don't like each other with the added detail that the parents are of different races. These movies, or any individual project, aren't really the point. The thing that always worked about Ugly Betty for me was that dudes came and went but Betty's focus was squarely on her own life, and the story was centered the exact same way. And it's not so much that Fererra is curvy, or that she's Latina, although I like those things about her too. It's just that too many female actresses end up accessories in their own stories, no matter the color of their skin or their body type. Some, like Katherine Heigel, seem content to do that, and no matter how much that depresses me, I can't fault the choice if it keeps them working. But Fererra seems too precious, too talented, for her to resign herself to that. Maybe if she can't find projects that let her be a true star, it's better her for her to take some time off than to be the kicky, curvy Latina sidekick, the kick, curvy Latina girlfriend, or the only semi-kicky but still curvy Latina window dressing.