America Ferrera’s Husband’s Barbie Cameo Was Art Imitating Life

When America Ferrera filmed Barbie, art imitated life much more than she expected. In an interview with PEOPLE published on Jan. 4, the actor opened up about her husband Ryan Piers Williams’ cameo in Barbie. “We didn’t tell anybody, any of our friends or family,” she said.

Ferrera plays Gloria, a Mattel employee who meets Barbie (Margot Robbie) with her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), leading them on an adventure to Barbie Land. Williams, an actor, writer, and producer, makes a few brief but scene-stealing appearances as Gloria’s husband, who is too busy learning Spanish on Duolingo to notice that his family is gone.

How Williams’ Cameo Came To Be

It all started on Ferrera’s first Zoom with Barbie director and co-writer Greta Gerwig, where she was highlighting her favorite parts of the script. “I said, ‘Oh my God, I laughed so hard when you cut to the dad doing his Spanish lessons, because my husband was literally in the other room doing his Spanish lessons,’” she recalled.

Immediately, Gerwig had a light-bulb moment. “Right away she was like, ‘Oh my God, does he want to play your husband?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him,’” she said.

Months later, as production was about to begin, she hadn’t moved on from the idea. “When it came time, she was like, ‘Remember when I asked you if your husband would play your husband?’ And he said yes,” she recalled.

“A Family Affair”

Ferrera first met Williams when he cast her in a student film while attending the University of Southern California, which Ferrera later attended as an international relations student. The two got engaged in 2010 before tying the knot a year later.

The couple had worked together twice since making that short film, Muertas, with Ferrera starring in his feature films The Dry Land and X/Y, but Barbie was their first project in nearly a decade. “It was really fun and it made it a family affair and it was great,” she said.

The cameo was ultimately easy to make happen because the two moved their 5-year-old son Sebastian and 3-year-old daughter Lucia to the U.K. for months to film Barbie. “They were young enough where I could do that, but still life happened,” she said. “People get sick, your childcare falls through, and then your spouse has to step in.”