Barbie Ferreira doesn’t really have her dream role.
“[For me]“It’s anything that’s well written and with a director I really like,” says the 29-year-old actress. Hollywood Reporter On zoom.
She admits that she’s not very interested in genre, which is well illustrated by the two projects she’s releasing this month – the horror remake Faces of death And Canadian indie Mile End Kicks. “I’m really open to a lot of things,” she explains.
Actress who rose to fame on HBO trancefound herself particularly drawn to the nature of “independent corruption”. Mile End Kicks. Set in Montreal in 2011 — yes, Ferreira explains, they call it a period piece — she found parallels to her teenage years modeling and going out in Brooklyn.
Now, nearing 30, Ferrera continues to choose projects carefully. She stresses that her happiness is the most important thing to her. “I’ve always had this dream of being a working actress with a normal life. I can still rock that,” she says.
“I feel bad for pop stars who can’t get out of their house without a million people,” she continues. “This is not my trip.”
Below, Ferrera delves into her new projects, trying to stay offline and surrounding yourself with real people.
What about Faces of death Interested? Were you looking for horror?
I really wanted to do horror. I know people say, “What’s your dream role?” [For me]This is anything well written and with a director I really like. I’m really open to a lot of things, and I love horror. When I received the text, I thought it was an interesting way to talk about the Internet. The fact that violence is so ubiquitous that we’re Americans, or anyone at this point because the internet is so global – we all watch unbelievable violence all day long without even noticing how much damage we’re doing to ourselves.
Your character Margo works as a content moderator, right?
I immediately said, “What a life…” There has to be a level of numbness and a level of unprocessed stuff that you can’t get past. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos about content moderators and the people who interview them. It is truly a brutal task to constantly monitor the dregs of the Internet at all times. [It] It must do something for the psyche.
What’s interesting is that we all do this too. I mean we use Twitter or Instagram or X, whatever. I don’t have one of those. I mean, you can just scroll and search for news. Suddenly you see people being bombed, people being shot. Real death, real life things happening, so for me, I thought it was an interesting experience. I thought about how Faces of Death in the 70s was so extreme and how it wouldn’t be as extreme now because of the level of violence we see so clearly on an iPhone all the time. How interesting to bring it to a contemporary audience and have a conversation about the companies that make the authorities a lot of money from violence.
It’s a really interesting point. We see this and become desensitized to what we see.
And this is every day. I mean, especially in times when there’s so much political violence and so much internet everywhere, you see it every day. I think about the kids watching this. I think about what happens to the human psyche, what happens to me, and the things that we can never measure because they are part of our culture and our society…there is nothing we can compare it to. It’s the way everyone lives.
Are you trying to stay offline?
Girl, I try, but I love the internet.
I know.
I just do the internet differently now. Play Scrabble online. I play Monopoly. Play Animal Restaurant. I’m on my TikTok watching cooking videos. I think there is nothing one can do growing up with the internet being a part of our world; It’s part of everything.
How is it different?
How you organize your online experience is very important. Even me, who tries hard to do it and puts in a lot of effort to put my brick on my phone. Dude, I’m not interested. I’m Not Interested I’m Not Interested still shows up because it’s pumping this stuff into the algorithm. It’s like I have a very interesting relationship with the Internet. That’s why I’m here in so many ways. This is why I am Barbie and who I am. I grew up on the Internet. I’ve made friends online [throughout] All my teenagers. When it wasn’t cold. People were saying, “You’re talking to someone online. He’s definitely an old man. You’re a weirdo.” I say, “No, that’s my friend because she’s my friend. It’s not like that. She’s real.” We FaceTime or whatever [it was called]we [would] Ovo.
Ovo. Oh, my God. amazing.
I think there was a certain innocence in that way, as it didn’t exist everywhere. I look at my mother and grandmother who are now as attached to their phones as I am now. I never thought I would see the day. They’ll be like, “Get off that damn phone.” Now we’re all on our damn phones.
There is no escape from this no matter how hard you try, unfortunately. I wonder if, with acting, you feel like you have to be online in a way that you wouldn’t if you had another job.
Absolutely, I think this is completely new. My theory is also that no one really wants that. … People don’t like actors who share too much online either. I think there’s that balance as an actor. You want to create an air of mystery, so people can show up when you’re in character and not have to think about it, but you also have to sell yourself a lot in general these days. I always try to be mysterious, although I’m not mysterious at all in real life, but only to people far enough away from me where they can believe my personality.
I get it. You don’t want them to always see you as you are.
No, I’ve done enough damage. I’ve been online for a long time, trying to undo some damage, and they know who I am.
You’re getting some of your digital footprint back.
They know I’m making fun of something online, like posting funny pictures. I love doing it, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Even more so, I like to have a balance in it because obviously, when you also let a lot of people in, especially if it’s millions of people, or sarcasm, or nuance, it’s hard to get into. Sometimes I make a joke that’s so obvious that I can’t even think that someone wouldn’t interpret it correctly. They’re like, “Are you serious?” I’m very aware of that and that my platform has changed from the way I used it before I became an actor. I’m also almost 30 years old. Do you know what I mean? We have to stop being an Instagram villain at some point. Maybe not. Maybe not for me. I will do this forever.
I know people have access to you on social media and feel comfortable saying things behind a computer screen. How do you deal with that?
Honestly, this has been going on for a long time, like 13 years of my life. Nearly half of my life has been unsolicited opinions about me in any form. Obviously it still hurts, but it’s different now. I have a greater understanding of society and the Internet. Everyone gets shit. I’m not very special in life, where I won’t be exposed to trivialities. Maybe more bullshit is because I’m doing something right. The shit you put in is obviously different. I want it to make sense to my heritage and my body of work.
I’m into it more these days. I understand that people will talk about me, whether it’s negative, positive or somewhere in between. I’m not afraid anymore. A lot of times I felt like I was hiding, or physically hiding in my home. Now I feel more free. It’s less important to me. I understand that this will happen to everyone. I have a lot of really great friends who have their moments and then instantly fall apart completely for no reason. It’s everyone. We’re all in this together, so it seems like it’s not really a personal issue.
I can understand that. Do you wish anything was different?
I wish society would stop being so rude to people with good intentions. I feel like no one is looking for good intentions b Come back now. People just want to bully, get likes and comment on the taste of anger. This is how we live now. I try to live life as authentically as possible. Even if I’m just playing a game on my phone, but my friends are by my side. I have real people that I love. I have a really great group of friends and family. We are very close. I pretty much run a community in my house where my friends come in and out. All of these things really help with using the Internet because the Internet is not real. The perception you may have of yourself can change a lot. You read something, and then you create this vision of who you are to other people, and that’s not true. It’s hard because the internet loves to gaslight you into thinking you’re something you’re not all the time.
You are absolutely right, that is everyone. I mean, I got death threats. I write about celebrities.
Baby, it’s everyone. You name a person. If it’s about my looks… I look at the bitch, who is the sexiest person on the planet. All her comments are rude. Every article is rude. Someone is being rude, everyone is being rude. It’s just what sells these days. I believe I will keep working until we find love in our hearts.
exactly.
I don’t know if that would happen in Hollywood, but that’s okay.
We can hope. I like to talk about Mile End Kicks. What was special about this project?
Honestly, I thought it would be really cool to do an independent film. I grew up at the end of that era, and that’s what I looked up to. I was out there, when I was 16, hanging out with these punk indie icons. Well, don’t hang around. They didn’t know me, but I was close to them. For me, that was a special period of time. That’s when I really came back to myself, in 2011, 2012, 2013. That’s when I started modeling for American Apparel and getting into the art world in New York. I was in Brooklyn the whole time. It looked like a lot of similarity to Montreal.
I liked the idea of a piece of something not that long ago. People were into this nostalgic culture too. As we can all see. Everyone like the 90s and 2000s. Now, it’s 2011. Okay, let’s get to it. But I think people long for a time when it wasn’t so complicated. They long for a time when there is chaos. People are so afraid to be messy these days. They’re very upset because we live in a surveillance culture where everyone says, “I’m going to make a TikTok of myself.” Even kids who go to school say, “I’m going to have pictures of me doing this.” It’s an incredibly scary way of life, so I think there’s a huge longing for a time that’s a little different, when technology was still around, but it was used in a fun way. Where you take photo booth photos and post your status. It’s not like you’re selling yourself out there to achieve your dreams.
