America Ferrera on Returning to TV in NBC’s Superstore

It has been five years since the Technicolor wonder that was Ugly Betty aired its series finale, and the last time audiences watched its vibrant star, America Ferrera, in a regular television role. Tonight Ferrera returns to TV as witty supervisor Amy on NBC’s Superstore, a sitcom created by The Office writer and producer Justin Spitzer and set in a Walmart-esque big-box store. The Jim to Ferrera’s Pam, with whom she banters over pricing guns, is Ben Feldman, best known as Michael Ginsberg, everyone’s favorite possible-alien copywriter on Mad Men.

During her television hiatus, Ferrera, the first Hispanic woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (for Betty), has cameoed on shows including The Good Wife and Inside Amy Schumer; launched her own production company, Take Fountain Productions; campaigned for President Obama; and married writer-producer Ryan Piers Williams (whom she acted alongside in last year’s indie X/Y). Ferrera spoke with Vogue.com by phone about her return to TV, her mission to drive Latino voters to the polls in 2016, and her hope for a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants reunion film.

It’s been five years since Ugly Betty. What’s your state of mind as you return to television?
I feel like I took a nice “cleansing my palate” break. There’s little artifice to the character [of Amy], and that’s very different from what I played with Betty. I loved Betty. It was such a life-altering experience. I’m excited to let [Superstore] be its own thing and see how it grows.

I assume you’ve been approached to do many shows since Betty. Why this one?
There definitely have been opportunities. I love that it’s about working-class people. I grew up watching everything from Family Matters to Roseanne to Dawson’s Creek. I also thought that the setting of a big-box store was so rife with material. I don’t think it’s any secret that I am a political and outspoken person. The writer-creator of our show, Justin Spitzer, came off The Office. I found his writing to be, yes, funny, but there was always a running commentary about the lives of these working-class people stuck in very corporate America.

You tweeted about authentic diversity while unveiling Superstore at the NBC up-fronts. How do you see the state of it on television right now?
Diversity is actually a word I kind of hate because it’s so overused. It’s just a polite word for “not white.” When I see not-white characters on television, I get most excited when wonderful actors are cast in roles that aren’t about the character being a certain ethnicity. I feel like our show is a huge step in the right direction. When I read the script, none of the roles were written with any race or ethnicity specified, but they were casting the show very diversely and not prescribing to “Here’s the black guy, here’s the Asian guy, here’s the Latino girl.” I think the only role that was specified was Mateo, who was written like a Mexican macho guy, and they ended up casting a Filipino gay guy. My character wasn’t written Latina. I’m pretty sure that Amy is the very first role that has ever been offered to me that wasn’t written Latina. That, to me, was really exciting.

Your costar and apparent love interest is Ben Feldman, aka Ginsberg from Mad Men. I’ve always been “Team Ginsburg Is a Fox.” What is your stance on this issue?
I loved him on Mad Men. I always thought that he was going to end up with . . .

Peggy.
Peggy, yes. I was rooting for him. Ben is very, very charming and very easy to love on camera and off. He just oozes charm.

You mentioned you’re a political person. You wrote an open letter to Donald Trump, and you’re working with Somos Más and the Human Rights Campaign to get out the Latino vote in 2016. What do you hope to see from the Latino-American community in the upcoming election?
I want to see a fire get lit under the Latino ass. We have the fortune of living in a democracy, but that only works to our advantage if we show up. It’s not about who wins the election this year. It starts with, “Are we going to organize?” Once we become a voice in politics that politicians have to answer to . . . that’s the only time that things are really going to change for us in this country. My biggest hope is that we show up in droves. We would be a force that couldn’t be ignored anymore.

Do you ever consider running for office?
Only because people have asked me, like you. That’s not really something I think about. I just try and think about, What is there to be said right now that I can be most effective with? I don’t know, necessarily, where that will lead me. I would say that it has been, for a very long time, really, really important to me that I use my voice.

Completely switching gears: There is a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants sequel in development. Is there hope for the masses yearning for it to happen?
There is hope. There is a fifth book that the author of the series released quietly a few years back. It’s sort of a fast-forward 10 years of the last book. The girls are basically the ages that we are now. We have been talking with our original director, Ken Kwapis, about seeing if there is a way that we would make that movie in a way that feels right to us. The four of us are still very close. We would only want to do it if it was in a really positive and strong way and we felt like it was adding something to the series. The fandom definitely is a part of the talking about maybe doing a third film. The more love we get from our fans, the more possible it becomes.

That’s a call to action. You’re going to be deluged with tweets and, probably, a Change.org petition?
Exactly.

This interview has been edited and condensed.