America Ferrera can recall a time when she was once so desperate to land a movie role Latinas were no longer being considered for that she painted her face white just for a chance at landing an audition.

"I was 18 and putting myself on tape for a movie I really wanted," the now 31-year-old star recalls. "I got that phone call: They cast a Latino male in another role in the film; they're not looking to cast [a Latina]."

America's Fight for More Diversity

With that, Ferrera went to work, painting her face white and bleaching her hair blond, all so she could send in her audition tape for a part she never heard back about.

"I just remember feeling so powerless," she added. "What do you do when someone says, 'Your color skin is not what we're looking for?' Let me tell you: Blond does not suit me. I try not to prove my point on audition tapes anymore."

The "Superstore" actress shared that's hardly the only time she's known discrimination over the course of her Hollywood experience. On her first audition when she was 16, a casting director told her to "sound more Latino."

"I genuinely didn't realize until later that she was asking me to speak English with a broken accent," she said. "It confused me, because I thought, I am Latino, so isn't this what a Latino sounds like?"

With the issue of Hollywood diversity again at the forefront of much conversation in the wake of this year's Oscar's being almost totally dominated by white nominees, Ferrera has been among the most outspoken Latino performers.

Ferrera and Longoria Call Attention

She and "Telenovela" star Evan Longoria recently turned heads when they performed a skit at the Golden Globe awards calling attention to how much they're sometimes mistaken for the handful of other Latina actresses.

The scene starts off with Longoria stressing she wasn't Eva Mendes and Ferrera adding she wasn't Gina Rodriguez.

Later, Ferrera told well-known feminist Gloria Steinem, "I think the issue of diversity in Hollywood is multipronged and the solutions have to be mutlpronged as well.'