The Ugly Betty cast got back together for the show’s 20th anniversary, and the moment that broke everyone was about the kid who played Justin Suarez.
Mark Indelicato was 11 when he started playing Betty’s musical-theater-loving, fashion-obsessed nephew, one of the youngest gay characters network TV had ever put on screen. He’s 32 now. On October 10, he married David Watson, with his Hacks co-star Jean Smart officiating. And he has only just watched season one for the first time.
When that came up at the reunion, his TV aunt America Ferrera started talking about what those years really cost him. She didn’t get to the end of it before the whole Suarez family was crying.
That wasn’t the only time the tissues came out. Michael Urie says he now cries every time he talks about Vanessa Williams, and his story about their first day on set explains a lot about why Marc and Wilhelmina worked so well.
Justin Was Gay Before TV Was Ready To Say It
Ugly Betty premiered on ABC in September 2006 and ran for four seasons and 85 episodes. America played Betty Suarez, the braces-wearing assistant from Queens who landed at the cutthroat fashion magazine Mode. At home, her nephew Justin lived for musicals and had opinions about everybody’s outfit.
The show let him be exactly that for years without putting a label on it. Producers felt he was too young for the question, so his sexuality went unaddressed until the fourth and final season. When Justin finally started working it out, he didn’t go to his family first. He went to Marc St. James, Urie’s openly gay assistant at Mode. The series ended with Justin dancing with his boyfriend, Austin, at his mom’s wedding.
Plenty of gay viewers saw their younger selves in Justin. Mark saw the other side of it. He has talked about the pressure of being treated as a queer “poster child” as a kid, and he has told Out that he came out as gay in high school, to parents who backed him.
He Finally Watched Season One
The cast sat down with ABC News’ Chris Connelly for a reunion that aired on Good Morning America and Nightline on October 23.
Mark told Connelly he recently watched the first season for the first time, and that it was the right moment, because “child acting is very strange.” With 20 years of distance, he said, he could finally appreciate what Justin Suarez did for the LGBTQ community. Back then, he was just a kid having fun.
Connelly pushed back gently. It wasn’t all fun, he said.
That’s when America stepped in. She talked about the press and the strangers who said terrible things about Mark, said them to his face and yelled them at him, while the cast tried to shield an 11-year-old from all of it. They couldn’t shield him completely. Then she turned to him and told him he hadn’t just been talented on camera. He had come through it as “such an intelligent, compassionate, interested, interesting person,” she said, and “that’s rare.”
On camera she breaks off mid-sentence, laughing through tears: “We’re all crying.”
Michael Urie’s Vanessa Williams Story
Marc St. James was never supposed to last. Urie has said the assistant role was planned as a one-episode part, with Wilhelmina Slater burning through a new assistant every week. Then Vanessa saw their chemistry in the pilot and pushed the producers to keep him.
In the longer Nightline cut, Urie told the rest of the story. On his first day, he was quietly copying Vanessa’s every move behind her back. Somebody ratted him out. Instead of shutting it down, she walked over and asked him, “What else can I do that you can do?” He started pitching bits on the spot, like the two of them sitting down slowly, in sync.
Plenty of actors cast as the show’s diva wouldn’t have gone for that, Urie said, and some could have gotten him fired. She included him instead. “Once I turned 40, I started crying every time I talk about Vanessa Williams,” he admitted, to a big laugh from the room.
Vanessa gave the credit to her parents, both music teachers, who she said taught her about teamwork and about giving people grace and room to be themselves. She mentioned that she lost her mom almost two years ago.
Twenty years on, they’re still doing bits. For the anniversary, Vanessa posted a dance clip of the two of them: her going all out on a daybed in the background, Urie lounging on the couch in front, completely deadpan.
Tony Plana Says Ignacio’s Story Still Matters
The reunion brought back the whole house in Queens: Ana Ortiz as Betty’s sister Hilda, Justin’s mom, and Tony Plana as their dad, Ignacio. From Mode, Becki Newton (Amanda) and Eric Mabius (Daniel Meade) joined Vanessa and Urie.
Tony pointed to Ignacio’s deportation storyline in season one. “I think we made a huge impact when Ignacio was deported. And look at the situation now,” he said.
America, for her part, was never surprised by how big the show got. She knew how hungry people would be for that character and that family.
Marc Would Still Be Working For Wilhelmina
So, a reboot? Nothing has been announced, but the cast is up for it. “I’m ready, let’s go!” Ana said.
Everyone had a theory about where their character would be now. Urie said Marc would still be assisting Wilhelmina in some way, whether that means fetching her coffee or representing her. Vanessa said the two of them would be working together, and that Wilhelmina would finally get to be the editor of something, possibly abroad.
America already has the first scene. “I think Betty is curled up in the fetal position in her childhood bed having a midlife crisis,” she joked. “And that is the opening scene of the reboot.”
Judith Light, A Lamp And Octavia Spencer In A Blonde Wig
The cast also talked to TV Insider at what the outlet called a reunion brunch in Los Angeles, and it reported that the group had recently been at Mark’s wedding. America told TV Insider that whenever they’re together, it feels like no time has passed.
Their stories from set include a 2 a.m. shoot where nobody could get through their lines for laughing while the crew got madder and madder. There’s Oscar winner Octavia Spencer popping up at the Suarez front window in a blonde wig. And there’s a night of sobbing that ended with Judith Light at the door, holding a lamp, asking if they wanted it.
The 2010 cancellation still stings. They all felt they had more to give. “We were not done,” one of them says in the clip.
“Family For Life”
The night before the GMA broadcast, Urie posted the group photo from the day. “Spending the day with this bunch was the easiest breeziest bestest day,” he wrote. “Family for life. Love them more than my luggage.”
All 85 episodes of Ugly Betty are streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
If the reboot ever happens, Hilda is ready, Marc is still fetching coffee and Betty is in the fetal position. Somebody should check what Justin’s up to. He’d be in his thirties now, newly married, and nobody would need to wait until season four to say so.