America Ferrera talked about her reaction to being an Oscar nominee and her "disappointment" in the motion picture academy's snubs of her "Barbie" co-star and director on the phone with the "TODAY" show Wednesday.
Ferrera had sent her kids off to school with her husband Tuesday morning when the Academy Award nominations were announced. She was home alone, lying in bed, when the hosts named her a nominee for best actress in a supporting role.
“When it happened, I gasped, and I was silent. And I had no one around me to confirm that what I was hearing was real," Ferrera told the "TODAY" show. "So there was a moment of like, what’s happening? Am I imaging this? And then my phone started blowing up, so then I knew it was real.”
Ferrera got her first congratulatory text message "literally half a second" after her name was announced. It was from actor and Oscar winner Ariana DeBose. The message was "so sweet and moving," Ferrera said.
Phone calls shouting with excitement at the news came next from her husband and her publicist.
"We all had to, like, merge together and have a big shoutfest, which is all you can really do when you get nominated for an Oscar the first time," Ferrera said.
Ferrera also weighed in on Margot Robbie’s and Greta Gerwig’s getting snubbed for this year's Academy Awards, calling the lack of acknowledgment a "disappointment."
"It's just so undeniable what they created, how unprecedented, how unexpected," Ferrera said. "It was such a brilliant, beautiful, world-building, unexpected achievement that happened to also be a global, cultural and box office phenomenon. I think most people feel like that's deserving."
Ryan Gosling, who got nominated for best supporting actor, also expressed his disappointment in the two women’s being snubbed. There is simply "no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie," he said.
“No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius,” Gosling wrote in a statement. “To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement.”
"Barbie" is nominated in eight categories, including best picture, adapted screenplay, costume design, original song and production design.
The summer blockbuster brought in more than $1 billion at the box office, as people of all ages flocked to theaters in pink outfits.