CHICAGO — Actor America Ferrera is set to make her cinematic directorial debut with the film version of “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” the best-selling 2017 novel by Chicagoan Erika Sánchez.
Ferrera, who is a current Oscar nominee for her supporting performance in “Barbie,” previously directed episodes of her NBC sitcom “Superstore.” She won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Emmy in 2007 as the main character on the ABC series “Ugly Betty.”
Deadline recently announced the production had moved from Netflix to Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures.
“Flamin’ Hot” screenwriter Linda Yvette Chávez is adapting Sanchez’ novel for the film.
The young adult novel “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” is a National Book Award Finalist and is also included on Time’s list of the 100 best YA novels of all time. It tells the story of rebellious 15-year-old Julia, who longs to break away from her traditional Mexican family in Chicago. As she puts it, “I’d rather live in the streets than be a submissive Mexican wife who spends all day cooking and cleaning.”
Julia struggles to live up to the idyllic example set by her sister Olga. But when Olga dies unexpectedly, Julia uncovers truths about her family and learns that no one is really perfect.
“Perfect Mexican Daughter” author Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and grew up in Cicero. Her memoir “Crying in the Bathroom” was published in 2022. She will be an executive producer on the film.
The author told Block Club in an email: “I’ve been dreaming of this movie for so long. I can’t believe it’s finally in motion. My greatest hope is that Brown girls all over the city see themselves on the big screen.”
The story was previously performed onstage in 2020 at Steppenwolf for Young Adults.
The Internet Movie Database has “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” marked as “in production” and also lists “Chicago, Illinois” as a filming location.
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