Barbie Ferreira Is Getting Inside the Mind of the American Teen in 2020 – Esquire

Way back in 1916, a silent film called Where Are My Children? made history as the first American film to depict abortion on screen, with its villainous leading lady obtaining abortions in order to preserve her socialite lifestyle. In the century to follow, film and television have traveled light years from those moralizing beginnings, with everything from indie films to network television embracing a diverse spectrum of authentic, deeply felt stories about abortion. Yet even within this emerging cinema of abortion, HBO Maxs Unpregnant feels like the first film of its kind: a hilarious and heartfelt story thats at once a teen drama, a buddy road trip comedy, and a smart sociopolitical commentary.

Directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Unpregnant is the story of Veronica (Haley Lu Richardson), an uptight, overachieving high-school student in need of an abortion, and Bailey (Barbie Ferreira), the school outcast and her estranged childhood best friend. Owing to her lack of wheels and the restrictive laws where she lives in Missouri, Veronica must team up with Bailey for a 900-mile drive to New Mexico, the closest state where she can receive an abortion without parental consent. Unpregnant bucks every teen comedy trope about the funny best friend, imbuing Bailey with every bit as much personality, interiority, and character growth as Veronica. Of course, without the wildly talented Ferreira casted to fill Baileys Doc Martens, Unpregnant could never have pulled it off.

Ferreira is a revelation in Unpregnant, imbuing Bailey with brio, tenderness, and startling vulnerability. She is also the breakout star of HBOs Euphoria, in which she plays Kat Hernandez, a self-conscious teenager whose forays into sex work fundamentally alter her personality and friendships. Ferreira rose to prominence as a model before securing her breakout role on Euphoria, with her unretouched Aerie campaign becoming a viral sensation in 2016. In advance of Unpregnants virtual premiere, Ferreira reached Esquire by phone to speak about everything from Bailey's unforgettable costumes to the importance of depicting realistic abortion stories on screen.

Esquire: When you first got the script for Unpregnant, what attracted you to this story and to this character?

Barbie Ferreira: From the very beginning, the name of it, Unpregnant, definitely interested me. As I was reading, I thought, "Oh, my God, this is a normalized, lighthearted film that also addresses really important political issues." I knew it was very unique. I'm always looking for projects that have never really been done before or have a really good message. Unpregnant is the perfect mix of that, where it's that familiar teen movie with friendship and strong lead characters, but it's also so much more than that. All of it together just made a really dope script, and I was intrigued.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

ESQ: How did you develop Bailey and find your way to the pain, confusion, and vulnerability thats all roiling beneath her flip exterior?

BF: I think Bailey deflects a lot of things with humor, and I can definitely relate to that. Shes always making inappropriate jokes or being a little sarcastic. I can see how that would manifest after experiencing trauma and feeling really isolated in high school. Developing her involved making sure I was reading the humor in a way that really reflected her emotions, and in a way that made Bailey make sense as a fully fleshed-out character, instead of just the best friend who has the witty lines. A lot of movies can teeter on that, but thankfully, Bailey was really well-written.

It was also about contextualizing everything. I could relate to a lot of it. I brought a lot of my own stuff into ita lot of what I think teenagers face in 2020. Even the look mattered. I like to work in costume. I like to transform myself into a character, and I really wanted to do a big transformation in whatever way I could with Bailey. The costumes, the hair, the makeupit all brought me back to being a teenager. I can relate to being in high school and thinking, "I know more than these kids. These kids don't understand; they're buying into the high school hierarchy and I'm above it." But really, Bailey is craving friendship and connection. She's a very complicated character, and it was a blast to bring her to life.

ESQ: Bailey has such a distinct sense of styleIm thinking of her fuzzy backpack with googly eyes, for example. Your character on Euphoria also has a very memorable fashion sense. What role do costuming and clothing play for you as you develop and inhabit a character?

BF: Costuming is an incredibly fun and useful thing for me. We shot Unpregnant on location in New Mexico, so I moved to Albuquerque for a couple months. I cut and dyed my hair. When Im shooting something, I tend to blur the lines between me and the character. I started dressing like Bailey and going to the surf shops, where I bought these really funny t-shirts and lived in them for a couple months. I think Bailey's style is really silly, but also very true to herself. She buys things ironically, but it actually ends up not being ironic at all. Everything about it is mismatched. She has a very particular look, and I like that in a character.

Bailey is the outsider. I wanted to make sure that she looked different than everyone else. Why does it make sense? Why does she isolate herself emotionally and also, in her style? Where does that come from? For me, I was the kind of kid who definitely dressed very differently than everyone around me. I like to bring that into high school stories where its called for, where the character is unique and a little bit of an outsider. What do teenagers wear in 2020? What do they do to stand out? They color their hair and get crazy haircuts. They get tee-shirts from Depop or go to the thrift stores. It was extremely important to me not to water down Baileys look, because I know from experience that obviously she is different from everyone else, and she likes to be. She likes to stand out in a way, but also in an awkward way. Its complicated, but teenagers are complicated.

ESQ: What are teenagers up against in 2020?

BF: I guess it depends on which teenager you ask. Climate change is scary. The political climate is scary. Having an overload of information at a really young age is extremely scary. I like to call myself a guinea pig. I think members of Gen Z are the guinea pigs of the Internet. What happens when you're on the internet super young, you're overloaded with information, and you go through a pseudo-anonymous internet phase? I've been through almost all of the internet phases, because Im on the older end of Gen Z. There are a lot of things going on that no one has experience with. There's a lot of the typical teen angst and teen rebellion, but in todays world, the view is very dismal and not very hopeful. When you have a lot of information, you lose a lot of innocence.

ESQ: Your experience on the Internet gets me thinking about the major role of social media in this film. In one scene, when Veronica posts something phony and Bailey criticizes her, Veronica says, "I had to post something so people wouldn't bother me." How is social media affecting young people, in your opinion?

BF: I wouldn't be here without social media, so I can't completely deny it. I think it has democratized the media. It has given people more power in the media and in political life. However, its been an interesting experiment on humanity, because I think it's overwhelming. It's very addictive. It's also a validation tool. Sometimes, I wish I could just delete all my apps and go to a creek and paint for three weeks. But I also want to see my funny TikToks. I grew up on the Internet and I love the internet, but Im very aware of how detrimental it can be for someone's mental health. I think we're all realizing that and trying to find balanceor even just abstain and say, "Nah, maybe I don't need that right now. That's not what I need to be doing for myself."

ESQ: Another thing I loved about this movie is how it allows Bailey and Veronica the space to really be full-on nerds who speak Klingon. It's so rare for women to get that opportunity on screen without being framed as the butt of the joke. What's the significance of Unpregnant allowing the girls to take up space in that way?

BF: I think this movie is literally about two young women who go on a trip thats not centered around men. It's not centered around anything beyond the friendship and these girls. That inherently normalizes conversations about what they used to like as kids and what they still like. It gives them the freedom to express their thoughts without being locked into these stereotypes. Seeing a character like Veronica speak Klingonit's nerdy, but it's also super cool. People who have cool interests, especially women, are often deemed weird or nerds, but those interests are what make people fun and cool and creative. I think the whole movie really is just unraveling these two characters and what they like to do, what love about each other, what wrong wrong, and all the things in between.

ESQ: Part of what makes the movie work is this crackling chemistry you have with Hayley. How did you develop that chemistry and find such a great rhythm with her?

BF: I think we just became friends. It's so simple. That just comes naturally to mewhen you're working with someone, you want to like them. It doesnt always work out that way, but I've been very blessed that everyone I've worked with is really great, and weve clicked instantly. Hayley is so great and talented and goofy. Were both extremely high energy, to the point where we may have annoyed a lot of people with our jokes. We would talk in baby voice for weeks on end. Anything to keep us going, because it was hard. Shooting that kind of project is pretty toughit's hard to keep the fun alive when you're working long hours on location. We found ways around it. We had jokes, we sang, we did harmonies. We'd be in a corner like kids trying to entertain themselves while their parents talk. We'd be singing really loudly and everyone was like, "Please stop." We said, "Stop what? We're just vibing."

ESQ: It struck me as I watched this movie how much more media and storytelling there is about abortion than there used to be. Abortion has been a plot point on network television shows like Greys Anatomy and Jane the Virgin; it's also showing up in movies like Unpregnant, Saint Frances, and Obvious Child. What does it matter that we have this emerging cinema of abortion, so to speak?

BF: Abortion is one of those taboo subjects thats highly controversial. Its a very political conversation, and in polite society, we like to stay away from political conversations. But I think in the past few years, it's been a different story. I think abortion has always been painted in a way that doesnt fully encompass what it can do. Movies like Obvious Child were very inspirational for me when I watched them years ago. These stories make me feel something and they help me understand. I think people are so scared of talking about abortion, because a lot of people have opinions on how it should be handled and how it should be portrayed. Some people think it's always going to be a travesty, and that people should hold guilt about it for the rest of their life.

The amount of misinformation about abortion from adults is astounding. Theyll say, You'll always be physically and emotionally traumatized after an abortion, which is not true whatsoever. We need to address things head-on with a full scope of stories, because one story could never encompass any topic's full spectrum. With more abortion stories, there are more sides to it, more information, and it grows normalized. One in four women will get an abortion. It's something that's so common, and it's something that we don't talk about. But I also think it has something to do with sex, obviously, because Americans are very stiff and conservative in our views of sex. We preach abstinence and we dont teach sex education. We don't like to give our children any information. I think having a fuller scope of all of these stories is incredibly important.

In Unpregnant, the decision was not a plot point. Veronica knew that she did not want to have this baby. It was an accident. Her decision was to get an abortion, and she would do anything to get that abortion, to preserve her own choice. There are so many sides to it. I think they're all really important, and I hope good and accurate information is put out there.

ESQ: The sheer breadth of movies and television shows about abortion goes a long way in showing that women from all walks of life go through this. It's not just one TV character or one type of woman. It's so many.

BF: There's a line in Unpregnant where Veronica says, "I'm not the kind of girl who gets an abortion." Bailey says, "You're exactly the kind of girl who gets an abortion, because there isn't a kind of person who gets an abortion." There isn't. Its simply untrue. Mothers who already have children are statistically the women who get abortions the most. It's not always broken teenagers who are very sexually promiscuous. Even if that is true, they still have authority over their own bodies. I think there's this picture of what people think women who get abortions should look like. Like any other stereotype, it's wrong. It's derived from a lot of the shaming of women, which, of course, is nothing new.

ESQ: Whats the importance of humor in telling stories about abortion?

BF: I watch a lot of standup and a lot of comedy. That's how I deflect a lot of my trauma and my sadness. For people who enjoy darker humor, like I do, it's almost a no-brainer. Humor can help tackle a subject that some people may think is this deep, dark, traumatizing event in someone's life, when in reality, a lot of people feel relief after their abortion. I totally acknowledge that some people have hard problems and hard situations in which they grapple with a decision, but there are also a lot of people who get accidentally pregnant and do not want to carry that child. They feel like they have to feel guilt. Like they have to feel ashamed and have to mourn. There's no wrong way to go about making decisions about your body. There's no wrong way to feel about it. Everyone feels differently.

ESQ: In one memorable scene, Veronica and Bailey fall into the clutches of a couple who run a mobile crisis pregnancy center. Certainly Veronica and Bailey encounter a lot of danger on the road, but somehow one of their scariest adversaries is this couple. What does it say about the state of the world that one of the scariest parts of the movie is people who are ostensibly offering charity?

BF: I think that we live in a country that prioritizes white Christian views over anybody else's views. The couple is going about it the wrong way. If someone does not want to get an abortion, I'm like, "Great. Thats your decision. If those are your religious values, thats fine." But to take that decision away from other people who may not believe those same things... we live in a country where we're supposed to have religious freedom.

I think there's a lot of harm that can be done with any extremism. The thing that's really scary is that this does actually happen. There are crisis pregnancy centers that feed young people misinformation and bully them into a decision. Thats not the way to ever deal with any situation. That couple represents a lot of the oppressing counterculture to women having autonomy over their bodies. I don't think every person who opposes abortion is going to be kidnapping young girls, but there are people who take it to that extreme, who feed lies to scare people out of making decisions for themselves. That, to me, is very scary. I think that whole theme is a great metaphor for our reproductive healthcare laws and oppressive views on people making choices about their bodies.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

ESQ: What do you hope that people take away from this movie?

BF: I just hope that people feel good after watching this movie about two girls rekindling their friendship. I hope that people get good and accurate information about reproductive healthcare. I hope that people feel empathy for Veronica and Bailey, who are just trying to find access to reproductive healthcare. It's not even the choiceit's the access. I hope people will marinate on that for a secondon how hard it can be for people to gain access to healthcare. There are so manytoo manyobstacles.

ESQ: What can you tell us about Euphoria season two?

BF: I actually don't know. Season Two is not being filmed for awhile. There's going to be a bridge season, a little something for the fans, but Season Two itself is not even going into production for awhile.

ESQ: Kat was one of the characters who grew the most in Season One. What do you feel like she has left to learn in the next season?

BF: Gosh, everything. All of the Euphoria characters have a little bit too much to learn, and that's what's poetic, because every teenager is in over their heads with all these high stakes scenarios. The journey is not supposed to be perfect; if it was, it would be boring. I hope that Kat gets more of a grasp of herself and who she is, and that she learns to seek validation from different places. I hope she can learn to feel really autonomous within herself as well as really empowered.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Link:
Barbie Ferreira Is Getting Inside the Mind of the American Teen in 2020 - Esquire

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero