America Ferrera, despite her Oscar-nominated status, found herself unable to restrain her tears upon meeting Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time.
During her appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers last Friday, the 39-year-old Barbie star shared insights into the experience of being starstruck, noting that it can unexpectedly overwhelm individuals at industry gatherings.
Ferrera elaborated on one such encounter, recounting how she found herself “weeping” after meeting a celebrity she had a “childhood connection” with.
This emotional moment occurred at the 2007 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Ferrera clinched an award for her role in Ugly Betty, upon meeting DiCaprio, who was 49 at the time.
“I watched Titanic in the movie theaters seven times. [I was] 13, 14 [years old], prime time to be in love with Leonardo DiCaprio, right? OK, so the first time I went to the SAG Awards, and I had won for Ugly Betty, I had been onstage and the whole thing,” she recalled. “I was feeling kind of like, ‘I belong here, this is cool.'”
At the awards show, she ended up saying “hello” to DiCaprio.
“And I promptly departed [from] him, went around the corner, and just started weeping,” Ferrera said.
“And my husband, then-boyfriend, was with me and he was like, ‘I am so embarrassed right now.'”
Ferrera’s spouse, Ryan Piers Williams, whom she wed in 2011, then encouraged Ferrera to “stop crying.”
“I hope Leonardo DiCaprio never sees this,” Ferrera told Meyers, who joked that he “probably won’t.”
America Ferrera has recently shared her experience of being starstruck by the praise she received from fellow movie stars for her latest role.
During her appearance at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuosos Awards earlier this month, she expressed her excitement over kind words from Tom Hanks while speaking to correspondent Dave Karger onstage.
“I don’t know that I’m ready to talk about it. I’m not ready to talk about what he said, but I guess whenever anyone asks me, who were the actors you grew up wanting to be? I’d say Tom Hanks,” Ferrera told Karger. “I wanted to be Tom Hanks more than any other actor. I did. He’s every man. He’s like, we all see ourselves in him, right?”
While onstage, the Superstore alum, after emphasizing that she was “not going to cry,” shared a glimpse of her interaction with the 67-year-old actor, Tom Hanks, without delving into too many specifics.
“He came up to me at an event and he said very nice things to me and I’m still recovering from it, and that was truly the moment where I felt like … ‘Okay, I’m happy, I can tap out now,’ ” she recalled. “Tom Hanks just said nice things to me.”
Ferrera has garnered a nomination for the Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actress category for her portrayal in the 2023 blockbuster Barbie. Joining her are nine other first-time nominees for the March 10 awards ceremony, set to unfold at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
