THERE ARE MANY thoughts that go through your mind when talking on the phone with America Ferrera. That you’re speaking with an 18-year-old who’s just acted — make that starred — in her first feature film is not one of them.

For starters, there’s Ferrera’s obvious inexperience with giving interviews: the California native’s speech is peppered with likes, I means, kind ofs, and yeahs. She occasionally offers cliché answers with absolute earnestness. She doesn’t bother to mask her professional naïveté.

And can you blame her? The recent high-school graduate is inexperienced. Though she’s been acting in school and community theater for a decade, and appeared in the Disney Channel’s Gotta Kick It Up, her part in the upcoming Real Women Have Curves isn’t just her first starring role in a feature film — it’s her first role in one, period. The movie made its debut at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, from which it took home the Dramatic Audience Award.

In Real Women, Ferrera plays Ana Garcia, a young woman trying to balance her own desire for college and independence and her Mexican immigrant mother’s insistence that she go to work in her older sister’s dressmaking factory. Ana also struggles with body issues, enduring nicknames like "butterball" and worrying that an Anglo boy who’s interested in her is only enamored of the size of her breasts. Her concerns about her body play a major part in the film’s most memorable scene, in which Ana and the rest of the women factory workers strip down to their underwear — revealing their physical imperfections — to combat the room’s oppressive heat. It’s a revelatory moment of filmmaking, and one that Ferrera is proud to have been part of.

Q: When did you first know you wanted to act?

A: I was quite young; I was like eight years old, and I started acting in theater. I did theater in school and in the community, just kind of wherever I could. I was in high school, 10th grade, when I first started going out to auditions, professional stuff. I auditioned for about a year and never really got anything, and then my first job that I did get was a Disney Channel movie, called Gotta Kick It Up, which was a big thing for me. Right after that I got called in for Real Women, and got that. So it all happened really quickly.

Q: What did you think when you first read the script?

A: I guess I liked it. But when you’re starting out with your acting career, you kind of like everything. Whatever comes your way, you’re like, "Oh, I could do this." It was originally supposed to be an HBO movie, nothing real big, so I didn’t have an idea of what I was getting into.

Q: Do you see yourself in Ana?

A: Yeah. I mean, I think everybody can really somehow or another relate to what she’s going through, as far as growing up; it’s something that everybody has to do. Moving [away from] home, trying to pursue your dreams, and cut that connection with your family, which is obviously tighter in Ana’s house. Yeah, I could relate to that, as far as my parallel to pursuing acting; you know, not having a lot of people believe in me.

Q: So your family wasn’t real supportive of the acting?

A: Right, because it was just something that was like — to my mom, it was just kind of like a hobby, nothing that I should really waste my time on. "Do it in high school, do whatever, but you can’t really make a job of that." That was the idea. So no one really thought, "You’ll make it one day, and we’re behind you." And that especially made it harder when I went through that year of rejection, when they were like, "See, it’s not easy, not everyone can do it. It’s not worth the time, it’s not worth the effort." I’ve had a lot of people tell me that stuff. It was hard. I related to Ana in wanting something so bad and nobody really supporting you.

Q: This being your first feature film, what was it like the first time you looked up at the big screen and saw yourself?

A: It was really scary. Aside from the feelings of "Oh my God, I can’t believe I actually did it, I can’t believe that that’s me," it was surreal. The first time I watched the movie, I watched it at the Sundance Film Festival with a crowd of like 400 people, so I couldn’t be like, "Oh my God!" — I had to kind of be silent. At first it was surreal, but then I just enjoyed the movie. I really liked the film, and I was happy with the way it turned out, so I even almost forgot that it was me.

Q: What’s it been like winning awards for your first movie role? Does that put a lot of pressure on you for the next part?

A: Yeah. I think there is a certain amount of pressure, you know, "What’s your next step?" and "How are you going to top this?" As an actor, you just have to do what you believe in. You take the parts that you like; you can’t think, "Oh, is this movie going to be a hit? I don’t want to be in something that’s not a hit." If I thought like that, then I wouldn’t have ever done this one, because this movie was never supposed to be more than a cable-TV movie. I’m being picky, choosy in my next part, but you can’t overanalyze everything.

Q: How do you think being a Latina woman will affect your ability or inability to get parts? Do you think that’ll come into play?

A: I think that it has played a part in what casting directors see me as. It could play a part, it has played a part, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’ll see. If I wasn’t Latina, then I wouldn’t have gotten the parts that I have gotten. And it’s hard for any actor, regardless of race or whatever. And what’s even almost a plus for me is that I think that when you’re going out for parts that are unique, you already have a foot in the door where you’re like, "Okay, I’m unique, and I can play this unique part," rather than, "I’m going out for the blond cheerleader," where there’s probably a dime-a-dozen of stick-thin, blond, blue-eyed cheerleaders. It’s more fun to go out for the interesting parts.

Q: Talk to me about weight. Obviously weight plays a role in this movie; how did that feel to you, and does it translate to your own life?

A: Just being a teenager in America in general is a hard thing because there’s so much pressure on looks and weight and image. Everybody’s trying to look like a frikkin’ pop singer, rather than day-to-day people. High school is a runway; the halls are a fashion show — it’s not even about going to school anymore. It’s sad to look at what we’re doing to our own generation. Our youth is on a very self-destructive path, with girls abandoning their individuality to join the herd, the cookie-cutter look of what perfect is. And it’s really, really sad. Luckily, I never got sucked into that.

Q: How’d you avoid it?

A: I don’t know. It was just something that never really interested me. I always wanted to look good, or feel good about myself, but for me, looking like everybody else didn’t make me feel good about myself. And then, of course, pursuing an acting career, where the pressure is on even more, to be more perfect, to be skinny, prettier than any other girl out there, you know? It’s not the way I looked at acting. I’m like, if I’m going to be an actor, I’m going to be an actor because of my talent, not because I have a body to sell. You look at the people who have built their careers on looks, and how long do they stick around? They stick around just as long as their perfect bodies stick around. And as soon as you’re getting older or you’re gaining weight or there’s a new perfect body coming along, you’re thrown out with the rest of the garbage. So for me, building a career on looks is not important; it’s building a career on talent and the work. And this part, I mean, it was just a great part; okay, she’s fat, so what? So I play a fat girl. And my next part, I don’t play a fat girl. Big deal.

Q: Would you take a part if the director told you that you had to lose weight?

A: Probably. I mean, depending on what it meant. Male actors gain and lose weight all the time. All the time. And nobody says a word about it. Like, if I was doing a movie about a girl with AIDS and they said, "You have to lose weight because people with AIDS are very skinny and look sick," then if that was a challenge I wanted to take on, of course I would do it. Tom Hanks did it for Philadelphia. Lots of actors lose weight to look sick; lots of actors gain weight. And nobody says a word. It’s like it’s okay for men to do it, and then you see a woman do it, and it’s on the cover of every magazine. When I saw Bridget Jones’s Diary, I was amazed at Renée Zellweger’s performance — she did such an amazing job. That was overshadowed by the fact that "Renée Zellweger gained weight." And nobody saw how great a performance she did, because they were so obsessed with the fact that she’d gained weight for a part. It’s just such a double standard.

Q: Talk to me about the famous scene where you all strip. What was that experience like?

A: I started with a little hesitation, and then as it went on — the scene took like a day and a half to film, so you know, hesitation doesn’t last that long. It wears off, and you just kind of get used to it. That’s what it was. It was hard, and then it got easier.

Q: Were you a supportive group for each other?

A: Yeah, yeah. We definitely played off each others’ confidence. The ability to laugh at ourselves made it easier.

Q: Were you comfortable watching that scene?

A: No! You know, the first time I watched it, I watched it with 400 people, so I think my feelings were drowned out by the audience’s reaction, laughing and clapping and really enjoying it. I was just kind of like, there’s no reason for me to be embarrassed.

Q: Would you do another nude scene in a movie, or was it specifically the way the nudity was handled in this film that made you comfortable with it?

A: This nudity wasn’t some disgusting kind of exploitation. It wasn’t sexual at all. It’s what the scene called for, and it was a scene that was tender and kind of beautiful and fun, and that’s why I was more open to doing something like that. It would definitely depend on what it called for, what the scene was.

Q: How do you feel about the comparisons that are being made between Real Women and My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

A: I read the USA Today article. Almost everybody compares it to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but what this article said is that comparisons will be made because it gives you the same type of feeling, of life, reality, people celebrated. And that’s a good thing. That’s not an insult at all. But it also said it’s a movie that stands on its own. It’s a whole different kind of movie. Yeah, it gives you the same kind of feeling, but they’re two completely different movies.

Q: What’s next?

A: Hopefully another film. Right now we’re just finishing up a country tour. I’ve been doing a lot of promotion for this, so I haven’t really gotten a chance to look at other projects or kind of see what’s next. Things have been coming my way; obviously more doors have been opened, more opportunities. It’s amazing. It’s probably the best compliment in the world for an actor, when people say, "We were thinking about you when we were reading this." And especially coming from auditioning, cattle calls. It’s a really good feeling. And I’m at a really good spot in my life right now. I have no complaints. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I just know that I’m thankful for everything that’s happened up until now.

Q: And you’re starting school at USC?

A: Yeah. Because Harvard didn’t want me. I’m going to go say hello to Harvard and ask them why they didn’t accept me. I’ll be like, "Watch my movie!" Damn Harvard.

Real Women Have Curves opens on Friday, November 8, at Loews Harvard Square and Landmark’s Embassy Cinema in Waltham. Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com