She won raves for her debut performance in Real Women Have Curves and an Imagen Award for Best Actress in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Now she’s charming TV viewers as the style-challenged but lovably goodhearted title character in ABC’s Ugly Betty, based on the popular telenovela, Yo soy Betty, la fea. Our 22-year-old cover girl recently filled us in on life on and off the set.
Estylo: Did you hesitate at all to do a show called Ugly Betty?
Ferrera: No, not at all. I love the title. To me, that title was always a lie. The lie was that she’s ugly. It’s what the people around her would call her. But the truth is that she’s beautiful and you love her from the start. The joke is on everyone else; you’re dumb if you think she’s ugly.
Estylo: How did you get involved?
Ferrera: The pitch came from [producer] Salma [Hayek]. And if you know Salma, she can make anything sound good! She was so enamored by Betty and made me fall in love with her right off. There was really no hesitation. From the beginning, it felt like this world would be magical in a sense and she would be this superhero in a very different way than people are used to. She’s a very easy person to love.
Estylo: You’ve been busy making movies. Had you considered TV before now?
Ferrera: No. I’d mainly done work in film and planned on continuing that route. I’d turned down a lot of TV things, but I was never set against it. When I heard Salma’s pitch, I knew if this was done the right way, it could be something very special. As grueling as television is, the challenge will be to stay true to that and not let the beauty of this world get lost in the pressure of deadlines. On film, you live with someone for a few months and then it’s done. It’s exciting to be a character that gets to change and evolve—very fun and rewarding.
Estylo: Had you seen the original telenovela?
Ferrera: I saw the first two episodes of the Colombian version, and it was very easy to get hooked from the very beginning ‘cause straight off, you love her. She’s so easy to relate to and fall in love with.
Estylo: How do you think your version compares?
Ferrera: It had to be tailored a little bit to the American sensibility about fashion and entertainment. But the heart and the warmth that you see in Betty and all the people that you’d see in that world, that’s still there. Some of the plot points are different. But the character still exists in a very similar way.
Estylo: Why is Betty so relatable?
Ferrera: Betty is so forgiving. She’s not naïve, it’s the contrary—she’s so smart, and she forgives people for who they are, even though they don’t even realize that they need to be forgiven. She knows that people make fun of her and that she doesn’t fit in but at the same time forgives and doesn’t feel like she has to apologize for who she is. She forgives the rest of the world for not understanding her. Betty goes through life with a smile and has a smile that lights up a room. Betty is the person I want to be. Who could take all of the bad crap and somehow turn it into a good thing?
Order the February/March 2007 issue of Estylo
and read the entire story in English and Spanish.
