The official casting process for the upcoming film I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has begun and first-time feature director America Ferrera is looking for someone to play the lead role in her movie.
Ferrera, best known for her roles in films like Real Women Have Curves and TV’s Ugly Betty, took to social media last week to share with her followers that they could apply for the lead role.
“Casting call!!!! This is your director speaking!! It’s finally happening, all you gorgeous and relentless peeps sliding into my DM’s asking how to audition!!” Ferrera wrote on Instagram along with a video detailing the casting process. “We’re officially on the hunt to find our Julia in the @netflix movie #IAmNotYourPerfectMexicanDaughter.”
The role Ferrera is looking to fill is for the lead character Julia Reyes, a determined teenager with traditional Mexican immigrant parents who wish she were more like her sister Olga, their “perfect Mexican daughter.”
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is based on Erika L. Sánchez’s bestselling novel of the same name and adapted by screenwriter Linda Yvette Chávez (TV’s Gentefied).
A couple of days after Ferrera’s initial casting call, she released another message letting fans know that her team had to create a new email account because of the massive number of entries they received in such a short amount of time.
“Y’all!! You broke our email account with the flood of submissions, and it’s an amazing embarrassment of riches!” Ferrera wrote. “Thank you for your enthusiasm!! And for your patience with this!”
When she first announced the film earlier this year, Ferrera said she fell in love with Sánchez’s 2017 novel the first time she read it.
“The depth, wit and searing intelligence of [Erika’s] writing, and her young Latina heroine, struck me to my core and left me wanting so much more,” America Ferrera said in a statement. “The opportunity to direct the work of these two incredibly talented Latina writers is a dream come true. I can’t wait to share this film with the many fans of the novel, and to introduce this funny, profound, and resonant story to the world.”