A Dozen “Ugly” Things You Didn’t Know about “Ugly Betty”

FLASHBACK: Here's a look at one of the shows featured at the 2007 Paley Festival

The cast of ABC’s hit comedic soap Ugly Betty were honored at a panel discussion on March 12 (2007) at the Museum of Television and Radio’s annual William S. Paley Television Festival.

Here are some things they revealed:

1. Producers had America Ferrera in mind for the title part from the start, impressed with her performance in the 2002 flick Real Women Have Curves. The first Ferrera heard of it was when she was having dinner in a restaurant when producer Salma Hayek approached her saying, “America, you are my ugly girl.”

2. Vanessa Williams only took the part of resident bitch Wilhelmina Slater because the pilot was shot in New York City, where she lives. When producers decided to move production to Los Angeles, she was going to drop out, but her children told her it was too good a role to pass up. So, now she commutes each week.

3. Executive producers Silvio Horta and Marco Pennette say they are able to make commentary on social issues (immigration, being an outsider trying to fit in, the culture’s obsession with beauty) by emphasizing the humor in the situation. They work closely with the writers to find the “emotional bottom” for each episode, then add the humor on top of it.

4. When Horta was asked to figure out how to adapt the Columbian telenovela Yo Soy Betty Le Fea for American TV, he initially envisioned Betty as an FBI working undercover at Mode magazine. When he pitched that idea, the producers’ dead silence was all it took for him to realize he was on the wrong track.

5. Eric Mabius is the least like his character, playboy turned fashion magazine editor Daniel Meade. He wanted to skip the audition believing the producers wouldn’t get his sense of humor, instead wanting to audition for the series Heroes.

6. Michael Urie, who is a Julliard graduate, reports his character of Marc, Wilhelmina’s assistant, was initially supposed to be very minor, but Vanessa Williams kept ad libbing lines calling him into the scene thus giving him more screen time.

7. Urie says once he puts on Marc’s tight pants and vest, the character’s walk just comes naturally. He calls his role “the greatest job ever” since he gets to paid say the character’s sassy lines.

8. Ashley Jensen who plays Scottish seamstress Christine auditioned for the part using a New York accent. Producers then asked her to try it in her native accent and changed the character to Scottish. She loves that her character is the one who always cuts through the BS to get to the heart of the situation.

9. Becky Newton who plays bitchy receptionist Amanda had been to two other auditions and done poorly on each on the day she was scheduled to audition for Ugly Betty. By the time, she got to that audition, she was annoyed and in a bad mood. Turns out that annoyed attitude was exactly what the producers were looking for in Amanda.

10. Rebecca Romijn who plays transgendered Alexis Mead, wanted to play a friend of Betty’s. When producers mentioned the part of the bandaged character (who turned out to be Alexis), her initial reaction was, “Oh, that’s the storyline I never pay attention to.”

11. When the character of Betty’s nephew Justin was required to perform the song "Good Morning, Baltimore" from the Broadway musical Hairspray on the subway train in a recent episode, 12-year-old actor Mark Indelicato already knew the song by heart since one of his closest friends plays the Hairspray soundtrack constantly.

12. Silvia Horta worked hard with the crew to create the right look for the series and the right use of color. He used director Pedro Almodovar’s 1986 screwball comedy/thriller Matador (starring a young Antonio Banderas) as a model.