When Salma Hayek asks you to do something, you do it.

That, in a nutshell, is how America Ferrera describes the way she won the title role in Ugly Betty, the Golden Globe-winning ABC series that was honored at the Museum of Television and Radio's Paley Festival on Monday.

"I was having dinner at this hotel, and I hear this voice call out 'America! You are my ugly girl!,'" Ferrera recalled. "It was Salma. At first I was just taken aback at how gorgeous she is, and then I wondered, 'Why is this woman talking to me, and why am I her ugly girl?'"

That was way back in 2004. ABC passed on Betty at that time, but the show clicked a year later when writer Silvio Horta came aboard. The result has been one of the season's bigger new hits, which deftly balances broad comedy and soapy plot threads -- it is after all, based on a hugely popular telenovela -- with fully human characters and a big, warm heart.

The heart was on full display Monday night, with audience members thanking the cast and crew for their work in encouraging people to be comfortable in their own skin and Ferrera noting how her character's arc relates to her own career, which took off with the HBO movie Real Women Have Curves.

With that movie, in which she played a young woman who, like Betty, doesn't fit media-approved notions of beauty, "the reasons I got the job were the same things everyone was telling me" about why she couldn't make a career of acting."

"This is beyond what I could have imagined -- for something [like this] to happen at such an important point in my life," she said. "It's almost dreamlike."

Those comments, and many others, elicited applause from the Paley crowd, prompting co-star Ashley Jensen (who's Scottish) to remark, "I love the way you all cheer in America. We don't do that in Britain." (Yeah, that drew applause too.)

The audition story is a staple of Paley Festival panels, and the Ugly Betty cast had some good ones. Jensen says she initially did her reading "in my best New York accent," which drew a rather long pause in the room. Finally, someone asked, "Could you do it in your own accent?" -- "and they changed it from a straight-talking New Yorker to a straight-talking Scottish person, and here I am," Jensen said.

Michael Urie, who plays Wilhelmina's (Vanessa Williams) catty assistant Marc, recalled that he was doing an "off-off-Broadway musical about geology -- I'm not kidding" when he auditioned for what was just a minor role in the pilot. "But Vanessa kept yelling 'Marc!,' so they couldn't cut around me."

Then there's Rebecca Romijn, who was a fan of the show before joining the cast as Alexis, Daniel's (Eric Mabius) brother-turned-sister. "I had a meeting with [the producers] and said, 'I want to be Betty's friend!'" Romijn said.

"And they said, 'We have something else in mind for you,' and asked if they know the storyline of the masked woman. I said, 'Yeah, that's the part of the story I don't pay attention to.'"

Suffice to say her interest perked up when the producers told her she'd be playing the unmasked version.

Comments

UGLY BETTY is truly great tv. Appointment tv. It has become the newest member of my TiVo Season Pass lineup.

Michael | Mar 14, 2007 1:44:00 PM | #

---

I love the show when are there going to be new episodes?

charlyn Larsgaard | Mar 14, 2007 2:28:06 PM | #

---

I LOVE Ugly Betty - Talk about "Must See TV" I even watch the repeats!

SEU | Mar 14, 2007 3:40:39 PM | #

---

I was at the event. Michael Urie and Ashley Jensen are truly two of the funniest people I've ever met. Ashley deserves much more screen time. Her comic timing is perfect. Paley festival is a don't miss event for me every year. Long live BETTY!!

Steve | Mar 14, 2007 5:09:04 PM | #

---

Post a comment

Name:
Email Address:	optional
URL:	optional
Comments: