"Real Women Have Curves" Director Recalls Casting ThenTeenage America Ferrera in Her First Movie Nearly 25 Years Ago (Exclusive) Meredith Wilshere, Brendan LeSun, March 29, 2026 at 10:30 PM UTC 0 America Ferrera in 'Real Women Have Curves'Credit: HBO/Courtesy Everett Collection Patricia Cardoso reflects on casting a 17yearold America Ferrera in her first film, praising her intelligence and talent Cardoso credits her mother as the inspiration behind Real Women Have Curves, calling her the movie's muse Real Women Have Curves debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 The director of Real Wome...
"Real Women Have Curves" Director Recalls Casting Then-Teenage America Ferrera in Her First Movie Nearly 25 Years Ago (Exclusive)
Meredith Wilshere, Brendan LeSun, March 29, 2026 at 10:30 PM UTC
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America Ferrera in 'Real Women Have Curves'Credit: HBO/Courtesy Everett Collection -
Patricia Cardoso reflects on casting a 17-year-old America Ferrera in her first film, praising her intelligence and talent
Cardoso credits her mother as the inspiration behind Real Women Have Curves, calling her the movie's muse
Real Women Have Curves debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002
The director of Real Women Have Curves is thrilled to watch American Ferrera's career continue to flourish, almost 25 years after the film first premiered.
At the 2026 New York Women in Film and Television Muse Awards in New York City on March 20, Patricia Cardoso reminisced on what it was like meeting then-teenage Ferrera over two decades ago.
"When I met her, she was 17 years old. She had never been in a movie. She was still one of the smartest people I've ever met," Cardoso, 65, tells PEOPLE, noting that Ferrera was "also so talented and so strong."
"Now to see what her career and her life have become, it's very rewarding to feel that I play a part in that trajectory and so happy to see that we have representation at that level," she adds.
Patricia CardosoCredit: Theo Wargo/Getty
Real Women Have Curves came out in January 2002, and in addition to Ferrera, the movie starred Josefina López, Lupe Ontiveros, Ingrid Oliu, Estela Garcia and George Lopez. The comedy-drama about a first-generation Mexican-American teen at odds with her parents about her future also inspired a Broadway show of the same name.
Cardoso tells PEOPLE that the inspiration for the movie came from her mother, saying, "My mother was a very difficult mother, but she inspired me to create the movie of Real Women Have Curves that I made 25 years ago."
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"It still has such a huge impact in our culture that I would say that she's my muse," Cardoso adds.
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Lupe Ontiveros and America Ferrera in 'Real Women Have Curves'Credit: Newmarket/Courtesy Everett Collection
In 2024, Ferrera spoke to PEOPLE about what it was like to see the movie premiere at Sundance all those years ago.
Ferrera remembered celebrating "with a packed audience as they laughed and cried and applauded and then gave us a minutes-long standing ovation."
She told PEOPLE that moment "changed my entire world. I was getting to live out my wildest dreams. I'll never forget it."
After gaining recognition for her performance as Ana Garcia, Ferrera went on to star in Ugly Betty, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Barbie and more.
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Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: March 29, 2026 at 06:45PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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