'Ugly Betty' cast reminisces

It's hard to imagine that one year ago, no one knew the Hispanic girl from Queens with the brace face and red Guadalajara poncho. Mode, Meade and Marc were yet to be created in the pop culture vernacular and the closest satirical dramedy about the fashion industry was the film "The Devil Wears Prada."

Fast forward to one year later, when few cannot mentally picture the charming and untraditionally beautiful Betty Suarez, played by America Ferrera, as soon as "Ugly Betty" is mentioned. The dramedy, co-executive produced by Salma Hayek, was adapted for American TV from the Columbian telenovela "Yo Soy Betty, La Fea" (which literally translates to "I Am Betty, the Ugly").

The American series follows the life of Betty and the rest of the Suarez family, her sister, nephew and uncle, who all live together in Queens. Betty, an odd looking girl with a core set of values, becomes a fish out of water by working in the superficial, appearance-obsessed fashion world as an assistant to Daniel Meade, the editor-in-chief of a top fashion magazine, Mode.

The series ended up as one the breakout new shows of the year, earning numerous awards, including Golden Globes for best musical or comedy series and for Ferrera herself. With the show's first season finale airing Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC, the cast looks back on the past season and discusses why they think the show has resonated with so many people.

Ferrera, a senior at USC, explained why she thinks the show has been met with so many accolades.

"I think the show's introducing a lot of different faces to the television landscape than we're used to seeing," she said. "It's a very simple story about looking beyond what you see and not just in the Betty character, but in all the characters."

Becki Newton, who plays the beautiful but backbiting Mode receptionist, said she likes her multi-dimensional character.

"I think that originally Amanda started out as a really hateful human being, and little by little, it's been shown that Amanda's a bitch but is also covering up a lot of problems underneath. The second you show the more vulnerable side to any character people can forgive that character being so horrible," she said.

So where does Newton pull all the "bitchiness" from?

"Well, I've met a few bitches in my day, especially as an actress you meet a lot of sort of competitive, semi-superficial types, so perhaps from my years of auditioning I found Amanda," she explained.

Newton also gave her opinion on why the show has been so successful.

"People were ready for something new and something that's really uplifting. Every week you root for Betty, you can relate to Betty," she said. "I call my family after every episode and you really can connect and talk about it. There's really deep messages behind it, like embracing whatever is unique about you, and I think that's pretty rare in a TV show."

One deep message the show conveys is of tolerance and diversity, representing characters of different races, ethnicities, sexual backgrounds and classes. Ana Ortiz, who plays Betty's sister, Hilda, believes this is partly why the show appeals to so many people.

"I think it's nice to see yourself represented on TV. I know when I read the script for the first time I thought, 'Holy smoke, this is my family, this is how we talk, this is how we laugh,'" Ortiz explained.

Viewers also seem to have fallen in love with Hilda's son, Justin (Mark Indelicato), a gay 12-year-old. A decade ago, many would have objected to such a character on TV, so the fact that so many love him is definitely a testament to how much the representation of diversity on television has changed. In some episodes, Justin has interacted with Marc, the openly gay personal assistance to the magazine's creative director, played by Michael Urie.

"I hope that we continue to expand on Marc's relationship with Justin because it's hard for kids like that to find people to look up to and people to say that's what I am," Urie said. "Justin lives in Queens, he doesn't live in the world of Mode, so it's good that he can have someone like (Marc)."

Urie, as well as many of his castmates, believe that the positive messages embedded in the character of Betty have also helped the show resonate on such a wide level.

"To quote Shakespeare, 'To thine own self be true;' don't put on a mask and pretend to be someone you're not. When characters like Marc, Amanda and Wilhelmina try and be something that they're not, they fail and they get foiled. But when Betty is true to herself, she always wins," Urie said.

Vanessa L. Williams, who plays Wilhelmina Slater, the ever-plotting creative director of Mode, believes Betty's ceaseless determination serves as a positive message for viewers.

"It's all a matter of not being judged, that's the bottom line. Everybody snaps to conclusions and wants to judge immediately. Betty is one of those examples of someone who can persevere, decide what she's wearing, decides how she looks," Williams said.

Alan Dale, also known as the publishing mogul Bradford Meade, agrees that the show's attraction lies with the messages inherent with Betty's character.

"People who got kicked around a little bit relate to America's character, Betty, because she's a person that has been kicked around," he said. "But instead of curling up in a ball and running away, she worked out a way to maintain her dignity."

• The season finale of "Ugly Betty" airs Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC.