Speaker 1: Hello, Hi, How you doing?
Speaker 2: Everybody out there?
Speaker 1: What are you doing here?
Speaker 2: Betty?
Speaker 1: What are you doing here? Come back?
Speaker 2: Are you all here again?
Speaker 1: My name is MARKO Delacado.
Speaker 2: My name is An Ortiz.
Speaker 3: Let me introduce to you. I like doing that. Can
Speaker 3: we do that moving forward?
Speaker 4: Hey, guys, I will let him do that. I'm not
Speaker 4: used to be people being, you know, like so gentlemanly.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not used to you being so.
Speaker 1: You're a peg.
Speaker 3: I'm Mark Delocado and this is my best friend Anna Ortiz.
Speaker 2: What's up? I can so happy that you all are back.
Speaker 4: We are here to talk about the pilot of our
Speaker 4: beloved Betty.
Speaker 3: Yes, and Viva Betty. By the way, that's the name
Speaker 3: of this podcast. Yeah, you didn't know already.
Speaker 2: So we're coming back.
Speaker 4: And I mean, there's so much to say about this episode, right,
Speaker 4: I mean, Marky, you were a.
Speaker 2: Little, little little one. Yes, you were adorable. I know.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if you guys remember, but Mark
Speaker 4: is actually doing the rewatch. He's doing a watch watch.
Speaker 4: He's never watched these episodes.
Speaker 2: Really, I think you've seen a few.
Speaker 3: I had seen the pilot when it came out, and
Speaker 3: I saw the finale episode of the series finale, right, so,
Speaker 3: which is eighty three episodes in between.
Speaker 1: I have not seen.
Speaker 4: That's so, but you what's funny is that the pilot episode,
Speaker 4: and this is not a spoiler alert, but the last episode,
Speaker 4: we actually we actually copied a scene that you had
Speaker 4: in the pilot to also have that same moment.
Speaker 2: Between you and Betty Yes in the last episode.
Speaker 3: And you know what's so crazy about that? A fun
Speaker 3: anecdote about about that. I mean, I think that everyone
Speaker 3: that's that's listening or watching has has seen the show
Speaker 3: that Pat Field and and team made sure that America
Speaker 3: and I were in the same color palette.
Speaker 2: No, I did not know that.
Speaker 3: So the so in the in the pilot episode, she's
Speaker 3: in a blue, uh sweatshirt and I'm in like a.
Speaker 1: Like a reddish pink like T shirt shirt.
Speaker 3: And if you look at them, kind of stacked from
Speaker 3: season four from season one. I'm in like a like
Speaker 3: a pink a pink cardigan and she's in a probably
Speaker 3: at that point it was in fact, Mark Jacobs, thank
Speaker 3: you so much.
Speaker 1: I would have to we like what it's like you
Speaker 1: got at the bug and Base who is.
Speaker 2: Justin was in his mode era. He was definitely in
Speaker 2: his fashion.
Speaker 3: But he always was in his Mode era even when
Speaker 3: we met him, even though it wasn't you know, he
Speaker 3: did have a fashion glow up.
Speaker 4: But I'm like, so, well, you were the one when
Speaker 4: when she got the call from from Okay, well we're
Speaker 4: skipping ahead, but yes, right, you were the one who
Speaker 4: she was like for Mode anyway.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's.
Speaker 3: See, but we can get we can get there, because
Speaker 3: it's like, so I'm like so excited to talk about
Speaker 3: that scene in fact, and I just think that one
Speaker 3: of the you know, one of the things that we're
Speaker 3: going to do on this podcast is we're going to
Speaker 3: play like a few little games with each other for
Speaker 3: every episode.
Speaker 4: And you guys are definitely welcome to give us any
Speaker 4: ideas that you have or like your opinions.
Speaker 2: I want to hear them, even if you're.
Speaker 3: Reading us, and we want to read them, like we
Speaker 3: want to read them and actually talk about them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, because.
Speaker 4: Okay, so actually speaking because you and I you said
Speaker 4: to save this for the pod, so I'm saving it
Speaker 4: for the pod.
Speaker 2: But we were talking.
Speaker 4: About how Marky was like, well, basically we can't just
Speaker 4: like read the divas on the first episode, because you know.
Speaker 2: It was what it was for that place in time.
Speaker 2: But so we go.
Speaker 4: So Betty goes in, she goes into the she's wearing
Speaker 4: the poncho, she gets she gets rejected from the guy.
Speaker 2: Bradford. Mead is looking over at her. She comes home,
Speaker 2: she doesn't know.
Speaker 4: She thinks she blew it the audition, the interview. But
Speaker 4: we open up in the home and of course you
Speaker 4: know this is going to be told from a home
Speaker 4: point of view because that that was our world.
Speaker 2: But we open up. This is my question to you, Marky.
Speaker 2: So we open up and it's Selma and she's, you know,
Speaker 2: on the telenovela which I loved. I loved the whole
Speaker 2: thing of our show. And it's salmon, her gorgeous. She's
Speaker 2: holding a gun and.
Speaker 4: She's shaking, and you know, so this is my question
Speaker 4: to you. So she's she's obviously with a man who.
Speaker 2: Is you know, uh.
Speaker 4: They have a very volatile relation, that's right, And she's
Speaker 4: holding the gun and she's going to shoot him, but
Speaker 4: he swipes the gun away and grabs her and she
Speaker 4: ends up making out with him.
Speaker 2: Now, in this day and age, could we do that?
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like a normal Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Night to me, fair fair enough, But I don't you
Speaker 2: know what.
Speaker 3: I actually think that we could because because it's a novella,
Speaker 3: and also, like you know, camp is not dead, thank god.
Speaker 3: Can we just all like be just so for real,
Speaker 3: just be so for real when it comes to representation, right,
Speaker 3: we can all be.
Speaker 1: Uh like PC and a lot better.
Speaker 3: Right, But when it comes to just like something that's
Speaker 3: playing out on television, especially like it's kind of a
Speaker 3: meta experience, right, like and also like in the telenovella space,
Speaker 3: like if you don't know that much about telenovelas, like
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's it's high and drum.
Speaker 1: I mean like like in the.
Speaker 3: It's hysterical, absolutely, and so yes, I think that that exists.
Speaker 1: I think that that should continue to exist.
Speaker 3: I think that we should make more films that are
Speaker 3: are or more television shows that that involved that kind
Speaker 3: of camp.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love that.
Speaker 1: That's what you think.
Speaker 2: I mean because for me, I wasn't. It didn't bump
Speaker 2: me at all.
Speaker 4: But when I was watching it, I was like, hmm,
Speaker 4: I wonder if certain you know, certain people will feel
Speaker 4: a certain type of way about this woman sort of
Speaker 4: like you know, she's going to shoot him, but then
Speaker 4: they end up making lave.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, because that's what you're hilarious.
Speaker 4: It is high camp and I and I think you're right.
Speaker 4: There is always a place in Okay.
Speaker 2: So that was my that in that period.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we I don't think that we
Speaker 1: leave it. I think that we actually need more of it.
Speaker 2: What do you guys think?
Speaker 3: I'm curious to Yeah, I would like to know what
Speaker 3: what our listeners think about that.
Speaker 4: But the other thing is you're watching and I tell
Speaker 4: you to come over have some flun and you're like,
Speaker 4: I don't want to have fun. I'm gonna get fat.
Speaker 4: And I say it doesn't matter because you're a boy.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter if you're fat.
Speaker 1: Feep that in two thousand and like six or seven,
Speaker 1: so that we could leave it, you know.
Speaker 4: But I'll tell you right now if if I'm not
Speaker 4: evenna say if when we do the Ugly Betty reboot,
Speaker 4: Hill does not changing.
Speaker 1: No, No, Hill is going to still be Also, he
Speaker 1: has like a teenager.
Speaker 2: I don't know a teenager. You're going to be your age.
Speaker 1: You have a baby, don't you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, No, what am I talking about? Hill?
Speaker 2: Didn't have a baby.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I haven't seen the show.
Speaker 2: Oh come on, you knew I didn't have a baby.
Speaker 2: Oh well I was pregnant.
Speaker 4: Okay, so you guys, sorry, we're going off on a tangent.
Speaker 4: But I did get pregnant during the shooting of the show,
Speaker 4: not the not the first season.
Speaker 3: We're still learning how to do this because we really
Speaker 3: need to stay on.
Speaker 4: Okay, we're saying, but no, Hill did not have a baby.
Speaker 1: But but there weren't they thinking about it?
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm sure anyway, So okay, so the boys, So
Speaker 4: I wasn't wrong the boy being fat, we stays that
Speaker 4: stays back there, that's what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, in terms of the boy.
Speaker 3: No, the fact that I can yeah yeah, boys being fat?
Speaker 2: Yeah that that's okay.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter if you're you know, well, just her
Speaker 4: sentiment about it.
Speaker 3: Can we just start from like from the top, like
Speaker 3: the first the first episode, Yeah, like like of just
Speaker 3: like the first the first scene with with the model,
Speaker 3: because one of my so one of my favorite and
Speaker 3: we're gonna play you know this, like I said before,
Speaker 3: We're gonna play this fun game of like what our
Speaker 3: favorite lines are. And honestly, one of my favorite lines
Speaker 3: from the pilot is.
Speaker 1: Uh Milan Dolce and Gabanna fall.
Speaker 3: It's one of my favorite brit lines because I honestly
Speaker 3: I was watching it and I was like, this, unfortunately
Speaker 3: is like me when you ask me what I'm wearing.
Speaker 2: It's so true, it is so you, it is it
Speaker 2: and you and you say it to me the same way.
Speaker 2: You don't even look at me and you tell and
Speaker 2: you talked down to me like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, talking down is a huge No, that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3: I talked down to you when when it's both there and.
Speaker 4: Yes, because here I am in my like you know,
Speaker 4: sweatpants that my daughter doesn't like anymore that I'm wearing, and.
Speaker 3: You know she has all the cool stuff, by the way,
Speaker 3: I mean, honest daughter an his daughter has all of
Speaker 3: our cool stuff. I'm including mine and but I but
Speaker 3: I think that like one of the things that I
Speaker 3: also again in terms of of of one liners that
Speaker 3: I really love are things that are recurring through our
Speaker 3: show and through these characters, because I think that for example,
Speaker 3: you know Michael Yury's kind of squinting that you know,
Speaker 3: that is what it is.
Speaker 4: It's like him him always sort of like scheming. He's
Speaker 4: so brilliant he can do it with a look.
Speaker 3: No, he's probably the whole entire business with a look.
Speaker 3: And Becky Newton's walk, right, Amanda's walk. But one of
Speaker 3: the one, one of the things that I recognized upon
Speaker 3: watching the pilot was that Hilda.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying.
Speaker 4: That prevails by the way, I say that in my
Speaker 4: everyday life.
Speaker 1: No, No, you were not acting.
Speaker 2: Nov I was not.
Speaker 1: You were not acting.
Speaker 3: It's true and yeah, and I find that to be
Speaker 3: But I but I.
Speaker 2: Can I just tell you this, well, can I just
Speaker 2: tell you?
Speaker 4: So when my cousin, first of all, like the whole
Speaker 4: I was watching the pilot, and all those necklaces that.
Speaker 2: I was wearing was where Hilda was wearing, were mine.
Speaker 4: This was before Pat got me the Hilda which I'm
Speaker 4: wearing right now, the Hilda name plate. So I wanted
Speaker 4: like layers of gold necklaces, so I just brought all
Speaker 4: of mine.
Speaker 2: So those were all of mine.
Speaker 4: So we're in the house. This is the first scene
Speaker 4: with the family. You're a little little.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was our first scene.
Speaker 2: It was it was the first scene we shot. Yeah, together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, I think so.
Speaker 2: I think it was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I believe that with the novel, Yes, with the
Speaker 3: novella the Flaw and I'll Get Fat and and you know,
Speaker 3: and and but but you know, it's so It's what's
Speaker 3: so awesome about that is that the the first scene
Speaker 3: establishing the family dynamic, it was done so well to
Speaker 3: establish like the dynamic within the Suarez family.
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to say.
Speaker 4: Even just like the sets, each and every one of
Speaker 4: the sets was so specific to every and it was
Speaker 4: so like I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but Daniel
Speaker 4: Mead's apartment was so specific to Daniel me Our house
Speaker 4: was so iconic and amazing with the phone on the
Speaker 4: wall in the kitchen and yes you know, like that
Speaker 4: sort of flowery wa and tablecloth and mode of.
Speaker 2: Course mode like the most the tube.
Speaker 3: I just I mean, and if you are tuning in
Speaker 3: right now, this is actually the little blanket that was
Speaker 3: on the uh couch. But yeah, I mean, it felt
Speaker 3: everything felt like when I walked in, I remember, you know,
Speaker 3: being so young and like really not not understanding like
Speaker 3: what we were about to first of all embark on,
Speaker 3: because I don't know any.
Speaker 2: Of us even know. I think we were all sort
Speaker 2: of no.
Speaker 3: I don't think that anyone knew, but I just didn't
Speaker 3: really like understand like what it was. In fact, I know,
Speaker 3: but but I think that the family dynamics were and
Speaker 3: the ways in which the Suarez family was written just
Speaker 3: from jump, from the first time that you see us,
Speaker 3: the first time that you meet these characters, you already
Speaker 3: get an automatic sense of what the vibe is. That's right,
Speaker 3: do you know what I mean? Like you know who
Speaker 3: all four of those people are within their family dynamic
Speaker 3: within that first scene, that's right.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know in the same thing.
Speaker 4: It's true because you were like you were so like
Speaker 4: I don't want to watch the novela, I want to
Speaker 4: watch fashion TV? Right, And then you know, and then
Speaker 4: I love that when they cut to the Fashion TV
Speaker 4: of it all and the host do you remember him?
Speaker 2: He's really really wonderful we all.
Speaker 4: I think also throughout the season we had such amazing
Speaker 4: fashion TV hosts. Yes, like I caught yes Fashion TV
Speaker 4: Alec Mapa being one of them.
Speaker 2: But this the first guy. He had this like incredibly like.
Speaker 1: He had I thought it was like a Transatlantic accent.
Speaker 1: It was like Dawn me. Yeah, it was very like.
Speaker 3: It was like kind of Catherine Hepbernie like, it was
Speaker 3: kind of like where are you from.
Speaker 4: I loved it so much and I I just applaud
Speaker 4: that actor because.
Speaker 3: No, he was incredible and I love and I loved Yeah,
Speaker 3: I loved all of those kind of you know, there
Speaker 3: was such a meta like concept to like, like so
Speaker 3: many incredible actors that that came onto the show that
Speaker 3: that did things that were they weren't like technically characters
Speaker 3: in the show, but they were characters in the show.
Speaker 2: Oh and that was the.
Speaker 4: Scene too where that was the scene where I'm like,
Speaker 4: I wasn't saying that necessarily that's what you're talking.
Speaker 1: About necessarily necessarily you know.
Speaker 2: What I loved that I did that was a total
Speaker 2: spur of the moment.
Speaker 4: Was when I I took a knife like our butter knife,
Speaker 4: and I checked my lipsick.
Speaker 3: Yes, but this is the thing I think that that's
Speaker 3: that's something in the pilot that you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Well, we were all figuring it out, but there was
Speaker 2: such a freedom to do.
Speaker 3: What is so But what is so strange, like or
Speaker 3: in such a good way about our show is that
Speaker 3: I think that, you know how sometimes you like watch
Speaker 3: a first season and the second season it's a completely
Speaker 3: different show. I think that there's something so awesome about
Speaker 3: the fact that.
Speaker 1: We all had.
Speaker 3: Things about our characters that prevailed throughout the entire series, right,
Speaker 3: that were established from the pilot, you know.
Speaker 4: And I thought like we had the most amazing director
Speaker 4: sort of at the helmet was his vision, Richard Shepherd.
Speaker 1: Oh god, what a dream, what a king?
Speaker 2: Oh God.
Speaker 1: Also, like you know.
Speaker 2: He has to Richard, you have to do our reboot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, well you have to also come onto the pod.
Speaker 1: No, But I mean, but it was all vibe his tone.
Speaker 4: I think he really set the tone for us all
Speaker 4: and was get He gave us so much freedom within
Speaker 4: these characters too.
Speaker 1: That's right to just.
Speaker 4: Sort of like bug out and find our I think, like, okay,
Speaker 4: so here's another thing. Sorry if I'm scooping ahead a
Speaker 4: little bit. First of all, Kevin Sessman comes in. We
Speaker 4: get to meet Walter Yesh. He's like one of my
Speaker 4: I am so obsessed with him, I can't even beg And.
Speaker 3: By the way, can I just say that, like like now,
Speaker 3: like watching television, it's it's like everyone copies Kevin Sessman,
Speaker 3: that's so right, Like everyone copies Walter, that's so right.
Speaker 3: Like I'm sorry, Like everyone copies that Kevin Sessman, but
Speaker 3: like the awkward like boyfriend guy, Like it's like, that's
Speaker 3: Kevin Sessmon on ugly Betty.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry, I hate to break it to you, Bene better.
Speaker 2: He's so and again like what you were saying with
Speaker 2: the car, like you immediately know who Walter is. Yes,
Speaker 2: when he comes.
Speaker 4: In with that broke and the button doesn't work, but
Speaker 4: a return, I mean, we just immediate. And the fact
Speaker 4: that I was like that that Hilda was so psyched
Speaker 4: that he was going to ask her to marry like this,
Speaker 4: I feel.
Speaker 2: That made me feel a little bad. Like Hilda's expectations
Speaker 2: are so low.
Speaker 5: Well you know, they get they start to she starts
Speaker 5: to aspire, but at first she's like, no, you come
Speaker 5: to work with at herbal Lux and you get married
Speaker 5: at Erba.
Speaker 1: Lux and herbal Lux name plate.
Speaker 4: Necklace that's right, Herba Lux and yeah and so okay,
Speaker 4: So Walter comes in, we get to meet him.
Speaker 3: He's so fabulous, and then we you know, bait and switch.
Speaker 3: He breaks up with her, evil breaks up with Betty.
Speaker 2: The iconic Gina Gambara talk about there can be only.
Speaker 3: One no really, Eva, please come on the pod. She
Speaker 3: is no no. Gina Gambarro is one of the most
Speaker 3: perfect characters ever.
Speaker 2: She was my perfect foil. There could have been a.
Speaker 3: Spinny is just and she is like she's kind of
Speaker 3: like like Hilda's evil twin. That's right, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, Like right, like, but she's like Hilda's evil twin,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And I and and they
Speaker 3: are obviously whereas.
Speaker 2: Where like Hilda has some guardrails, Gina has.
Speaker 1: No none, and I love it.
Speaker 2: We will get so much more into Gina, and I think.
Speaker 3: That the you know, one of the one of the
Speaker 3: things that I like so much about watching the pilot
Speaker 3: too is that there there's so much fun that we have.
Speaker 3: There's so there's so much comedy. We're having such a blast.
Speaker 3: But when you know, when Walter breaks up with Betty,
Speaker 3: you know, that's that's when we start feeling the fact that, oh,
Speaker 3: this isn't just a cut dry comedy that's watching Like,
Speaker 3: there's heart to this show in a really gigantic way,
Speaker 3: and this woman feels things, and you know, and we're
Speaker 3: not like it's not just like we're not just making jokes.
Speaker 2: No, that's right.
Speaker 4: And how Sylvia like crammed so much in without it
Speaker 4: seeming like it was just too much exactly, and Richard
Speaker 4: sort of handling Richard Sheppard the director, handling it all.
Speaker 4: And man, that was a grueling pilot too, because back
Speaker 4: to that first scene yep, when she's walking up the
Speaker 4: stairs and and like and following that, that was I
Speaker 4: think that was the last scene we shot.
Speaker 2: Of the pilot.
Speaker 1: That was the last one.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think, so that was, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And that was what probably like three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4: She had probably already shot the front part of that
Speaker 4: scene anyway. Just stuff like that was so we were
Speaker 4: also but you know, we just were.
Speaker 2: Like running on.
Speaker 3: But I remember the energy, yes, that I felt, like
Speaker 3: I don't I don't necessarily recall as much like the
Speaker 3: filming of the scenes as much as I recall the
Speaker 3: energy that I felt around me, like everyone just was
Speaker 3: so excited, like it was like and I just, you know,
Speaker 3: you never so little. I had never been on like
Speaker 3: a you know, a set before. I didn't understand like what,
Speaker 3: you know, what the excitement about like filming anything.
Speaker 1: Actually, so then we walk in.
Speaker 4: Okay, Oh, this is another question I have for you
Speaker 4: about do we leave this? Is this something that we
Speaker 4: leave in the day back?
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: I personally thought it was one of the funniest moments
Speaker 4: and it's brilliant and it's it's it's Amanda, right, I mean,
Speaker 4: it's Becky's character Amanda. So when when she comes in
Speaker 4: and she's like are you the before and Betty's like
Speaker 4: what and she's like are.
Speaker 2: You you know whatever whatever?
Speaker 1: And then are you.
Speaker 2: Amb I mean, like, could we do that now?
Speaker 1: I want to? I say keep it.
Speaker 2: I of course say keep it.
Speaker 3: I say because I know for a fact that that
Speaker 3: was a choice made by Becky Newton.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know what I mean and so and so.
Speaker 3: It's in that way that I I say, like one
Speaker 3: hundred percent keep it, not only because it's funny, but
Speaker 3: because like she made a choice as an ad in
Speaker 3: that moment, right like like and that I I don't know,
Speaker 3: I just can appreciate that as like an artist.
Speaker 4: Okay, because I was watching it, and I mean every
Speaker 4: single time I watch her deliver that line, that cracks
Speaker 4: me up every time.
Speaker 1: And then she's like. And then the next the next
Speaker 1: scene she's walking and she's walking like that, she is
Speaker 1: exhaust like it's like she's exasperated. Like I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: tired watching her walk, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: it's just but it's so funny.
Speaker 2: I know she's I mean, I kind.
Speaker 3: Of Betty walking into the conference room. Okay, well, like,
Speaker 3: so this is after we meet Amanda.
Speaker 4: Well don't you remember we would say so right before
Speaker 4: she walks and she gives herself the pep talk. Yep,
Speaker 4: you are an attractive, intelligent, confident business woman. If I'm
Speaker 4: saying that to myself every time I walk into audition
Speaker 4: right now, like like today, like every day of my life, I.
Speaker 1: Need to start. I do I need to start?
Speaker 2: I say it all the time, I.
Speaker 3: Don't ever say it, and maybe that's why I'm not
Speaker 3: booking it.
Speaker 2: Lies You are such a star, I know.
Speaker 3: But but then so she goes in, you know, she
Speaker 3: she obviously bumps into the wall. Nice little pratfalling.
Speaker 4: We live the physical comedy of America. Fererra is not appreciated.
Speaker 3: She does it so well and in that pilot it's everywhere,
Speaker 3: and she also like, hasn't done it since, which I
Speaker 3: also think is like hilarious. I'm like, all right, Diva,
Speaker 3: you can do this? Yeah, like, can someone throw you
Speaker 3: off of like something? I don't know, I can't exactly
Speaker 3: say what, but like, you know, do a pratfall for us?
Speaker 1: Come on, I bring us back, take us back, you
Speaker 1: know what?
Speaker 3: You know what can't stay in two thousand and six
Speaker 3: or seven is America Ferrera doing physical comedy.
Speaker 1: We got to bring that to twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Hello that okay, so she walks in again. Okay, So
Speaker 4: now we're going to be doing favorite lines because this whole.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and this is I think that this actually is.
Speaker 3: In fact, I know what you're going to say because
Speaker 3: I know you too well. I know exactly what you're
Speaker 3: going to say. Your favorite line is it's you all
Speaker 3: the time you you do.
Speaker 2: I'm hilaciously, I'm halayious.
Speaker 3: I'm hilariously upset Mark I. And and again, one of
Speaker 3: my favorite things Michael Yury like looking down like bug eye.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, It's like it's not even
Speaker 3: the squint, the way that Michael Ury is able to
Speaker 3: use his eyes to his advantage, or it is unreal.
Speaker 4: He's so I just he's so brilliant and and and
Speaker 4: Mark is such an amazing character.
Speaker 2: I think we said that before.
Speaker 4: I'm sure he said it a million times, that he
Speaker 4: wasn't even supposed to be a regular, but he's so
Speaker 4: brilliant and so incredible and was such an easy like
Speaker 4: he belonged there and and so they you know, I
Speaker 4: think his character was supposed to sort of be like replaceable,
Speaker 4: but he is not.
Speaker 3: Really yes, and he I mean, but that but that
Speaker 3: was I think that Vanessa, I believe, was the one
Speaker 3: that was like.
Speaker 1: Him, like, no, we that's this, this is it, this
Speaker 1: is it, and.
Speaker 3: I mean, and we're so we're so very excited to
Speaker 3: like have both Michael and Becky on the pod. I really,
Speaker 3: I really, I just want to like talk to them
Speaker 3: about just what their experience was, because they have said
Speaker 3: such lovely things.
Speaker 2: About us, I mean, and their experience is.
Speaker 3: Like working with us, and I just feel like, you know,
Speaker 3: as many people that that uh, that we will have
Speaker 3: on the podcast or not, that we have such such
Speaker 3: an amazing rapport, like such reverence for each other, you know,
Speaker 3: such right, but like I'm saying, like just such reverence
Speaker 3: for each other's work, though you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: And and and I and I remember in speaking of
Speaker 3: in speaking of that, I feel like when we filmed
Speaker 3: the scene that then became like kind of like the
Speaker 3: color palette copied in in season four of me coming
Speaker 3: out with the Camra meal tea with America.
Speaker 2: Okay caramel, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Couldn't no denial, Well, I mean anyway that I was
Speaker 3: so nervous to film that scene because I was like
Speaker 3: such a big fan of America. Like it was like
Speaker 3: it was like she was you know, we we said
Speaker 3: this last episode, Like I said this last episode, like
Speaker 3: that was Carmen, that's my sister heard the Traveling Pants,
Speaker 3: Like this was not Betty Suarez. Like I didn't know
Speaker 3: who Betty Suarez was right when we were making the pilot,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. I didn't know who Justin was.
Speaker 3: I didn't know who Hilda was. I don't know who
Speaker 3: any of the like us clowns were to be. And
Speaker 3: and I was so nervous because there were so many lines.
Speaker 3: I just remember being like.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, this is like a real scene.
Speaker 3: No, Like I'm actually like I'm like I'm going to
Speaker 3: watch this. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like one flipping thing to say no.
Speaker 2: He was eleven and we were all swirling about. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was total chaos.
Speaker 4: A lot of this stuff was like I think Terry
Speaker 4: told us, Terry Weinberg, our delicious and producer, she's sitting
Speaker 4: right here, she's so gorge she's so fab But she
Speaker 4: told us that there's that whole scene in the montage
Speaker 4: where there's like a great Dane and it jumps up
Speaker 4: on America and she has to walk. It's when Daniel's
Speaker 4: trying to get her to quit. That was Gorilla TV
Speaker 4: because they didn't have a permit, they didn't have anything.
Speaker 4: They were just sort of like, we need to get
Speaker 4: this shot, and we just shot it. That's the other
Speaker 4: thing about shooting in New York too, or shooting, you know, shooting.
Speaker 1: You do it, you can't about it.
Speaker 2: And that was and that was, you know, our fearless director.
Speaker 2: We're getting the shot.
Speaker 3: And Terry also told us that the photo shoot scene
Speaker 3: where Betty quits yes was the first that was the
Speaker 3: first thing she shoot to day.
Speaker 2: That was her first scene of ever shooting of anything.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine? And she had to be wild.
Speaker 4: I know I can't either, because I remember talking to
Speaker 4: her about it. She was like, oh that outfit, I
Speaker 4: can't believe it, you know everything, and she looked fabulous.
Speaker 2: But that is so extraordinary.
Speaker 3: But here's you know what though, A I will bring
Speaker 3: this up is that you know, of course she did
Speaker 3: look fabulous. But let's talk about do we leave something
Speaker 3: in two thousand and six?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: What about body about like body dysmorphia or or like
Speaker 3: body standards, right, like what do we what did we
Speaker 3: consider to be beautiful in two thousand and six?
Speaker 2: That's right, Like there were no sort of like it
Speaker 2: was just all stick.
Speaker 3: There was like I'm sorry, there was no such thing
Speaker 3: as body positivity in two thousand and no, like absolutely
Speaker 3: not no semblance of it. So looking at it now
Speaker 3: really like watching the episode and seeing the fact that
Speaker 3: everyone's like laughing at laughing at America like like essentially
Speaker 3: like laughing at Betty, like calling her fat essentially, I'm like,
Speaker 3: she looks just fabs love she looks lovely. I don't
Speaker 3: really understand what the problem is. I think that there's
Speaker 3: something that's really interesting about about that that it's like, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, we we on this podcast as well, when
Speaker 3: I have this kind of cultural like conversation and and
Speaker 3: and and make cultural commentary of what do we leave there?
Speaker 3: But I think that maybe that this is one of
Speaker 3: the rare times when we can say, like, wow, we've
Speaker 3: actually come up a long way regarding regarding the ways
Speaker 3: in which we view women's bodies. That's right, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean?
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Okay, So she's hillaciously upset.
Speaker 4: Purge this from memory, please, that's that she goes on.
Speaker 1: We get to meet Christina Ashley Jensen.
Speaker 2: For president, like for the Empress of the universe. Yo,
Speaker 2: she should run everything.
Speaker 3: I swear to God, Ashley Jensen should be president of
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 6: The world.
Speaker 3: I no, no, no, I'm telling you guys, I'm starting
Speaker 3: to gofund me.
Speaker 1: Actually En runs the world.
Speaker 2: We hang with her a lot, Mark and I. We
Speaker 2: will travel over oceans to see that one.
Speaker 1: We have in fat. We have in fat, even though
Speaker 1: I did get food poisonous.
Speaker 2: Well that's another story for another time.
Speaker 4: But then I do remember we meet I remember those
Speaker 4: two actresses what were they called, Zelda and Nancy come
Speaker 4: in and I think that had we stayed in New York,
Speaker 4: Zelda and Nancy, because remember there was the Bizarro version
Speaker 4: of Sex and the City.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I would have loved to have seen Christina
Speaker 3: like our little posse.
Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, like had because we went back and shot
Speaker 4: the rest of us the season in LA and those
Speaker 4: were two New York, fabulous New York actresses. Okay, so
Speaker 4: then we go into a montage. I still think we
Speaker 4: give the best. Oh you know what I did notice
Speaker 4: on the montage is in Times Square the big giant
Speaker 4: billboard of Diddy well choked.
Speaker 3: Welp, we didn't have we have a permit for her
Speaker 3: to walk a dog across the streets, so I mean
Speaker 3: we couldn't control the Times Square billboards.
Speaker 2: We leave that into thousand.
Speaker 3: No, no, we're leaving that. No, don't look at that.
Speaker 3: Don't look at that, don't look at it. Look over there.
Speaker 2: I know that's really it's like, sorry.
Speaker 1: No, no, leave that, leave that. We'll leave it. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: And by the way, why are you even bringing it up?
Speaker 1: I just had to because leave it over there.
Speaker 2: I know everybody who's watching the pilot saw that. They
Speaker 2: were like, oh, oh, I know it. Okay.
Speaker 4: So then we go back anyway, so then we're at Daniels.
Speaker 2: We'll get it more into that later. You guys, let
Speaker 2: us know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a bonus episode.
Speaker 4: So then we're back at right where Daniel's apartment his
Speaker 4: loft loft.
Speaker 3: Oh, you know that I don't live for an open concert. Yeah,
Speaker 3: well your Dumbo loft when it kind of gave when
Speaker 3: we lived in New York when we were filming season three,
Speaker 3: that's true.
Speaker 2: It was that was so nice.
Speaker 4: Okay, So anyway, Amanda there looking like a snack.
Speaker 3: You know that I love a trench coat with lingerie underneath.
Speaker 4: And I remember her sweating that she was so nervous
Speaker 4: and so embarrassed, which.
Speaker 3: Is also like again, like, I think that one of
Speaker 3: the main things that we're going to talk about while
Speaker 3: we're making this podcast is the ways in which the
Speaker 3: women on this television program thought about their bodies. Oh,
Speaker 3: because of the ways in which we were like culturally
Speaker 3: in two thousand and six to twenty ten, we have
Speaker 3: come you know, we've regressed culturally in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: But guess what, we do.
Speaker 3: Not necessarily talk about women's bodies in the same ways
Speaker 3: that we did in two thousand and six. Becky Newton,
Speaker 3: she was sweating putting on a pair a broad and
Speaker 3: a pair of swear.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't.
Speaker 4: I have to ask her because I bet you she's
Speaker 4: psych to have that now because she looked like a like.
Speaker 1: A that emerald green lace and green.
Speaker 2: I was like, and then the little like the little
Speaker 2: flash at the.
Speaker 1: End and she said by, she said, she said by.
Speaker 2: And then here comes the other one. What do you
Speaker 2: call what a red roosters on the.
Speaker 1: I don't know that was her codeword.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like I
Speaker 3: mean Becky Newton, Yeah, I mean all like every single
Speaker 3: woman on this on this television show had a perfect body.
Speaker 3: Yes if you, I mean you beat yourself up about
Speaker 3: your body, and you did at the time, by the way,
Speaker 3: I know, and like when you watch the pilot again,
Speaker 3: you're like, are you like she was snatched Boots?
Speaker 4: That's boots nice big, but yeah, I loved it. The
Speaker 4: other thing was Gina Grashawn coming in. I thought, first
Speaker 4: of all, she her character so Bananas is definitely supposed
Speaker 4: to be sort of like a like a done, but
Speaker 4: she she does with everything completely makes it her own.
Speaker 4: And I didn't know like what like what accent it was,
Speaker 4: but it was like one that I.
Speaker 3: Wa europea period.
Speaker 2: It was He's freaking joke.
Speaker 1: Faking.
Speaker 2: That's an iconic line. He's freaking Joe.
Speaker 3: She was kind of It's kind of giving Milania, isn't
Speaker 3: it giving?
Speaker 1: It's giving Malania her making.
Speaker 2: A dog could Millennia wishes.
Speaker 3: When Gina Gershon making out with the dog, it was
Speaker 3: so the dog's tongue fully directly in her mouth. It
Speaker 3: was so, And listen, I could commit to my craft.
Speaker 3: A dog's tongue is not going in my mouth, no
Speaker 3: one being so for real, know you are, but.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure one of my dogs has had their
Speaker 2: tongue in your mouth.
Speaker 1: Probably Maggie.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying people, he talks a good game.
Speaker 1: But I didn't make that decision on my own choice
Speaker 1: that I made.
Speaker 2: Maggie has no boundaries.
Speaker 1: That's my dog.
Speaker 2: Okay. So then wait, so when does it cut?
Speaker 4: When do we When do we figure out that Vanessa
Speaker 4: and Frenchie are have like done this all on their
Speaker 4: own and we see Vanessa in bed with him.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's when we discover that they're hooking up.
Speaker 4: And did you know that that, according to our delightful Terry,
Speaker 4: was Vanessa's first thing that she ever shot.
Speaker 3: You know what between America and Latex for the first time,
Speaker 3: and Vanessa in bed making out with friend, making out
Speaker 3: with frenchiepoo. I mean, if that doesn't set the tone
Speaker 3: for what our showing.
Speaker 2: I believed every second of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe anything that Vanessa Williams does. Are you
Speaker 1: kidding me? What are you talking about? That's right, it's
Speaker 1: all about.
Speaker 2: Okay, so then she should be Empress of the universe along.
Speaker 3: With Ashley Jensen is like prime minister and like Vanessa's
Speaker 3: like the queen. That's right, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: like a like a really gorgeous figurehead.
Speaker 2: Love this, I love everything about it. You guys, we
Speaker 2: are going.
Speaker 3: To I would love to see Vanessa in a crown.
Speaker 3: Actually doesn't want to wear a crown.
Speaker 2: I actually don't want to wear a crowd exactly. Actually
Speaker 2: likes a good suit made by Vivian Westwood.
Speaker 3: Correct, that's what happens. She's an MP or a prime minister. Okay, anyway, we.
Speaker 2: Solve the world's problem.
Speaker 1: So then.
Speaker 4: Okay, so so this is freaking joke, right, and and
Speaker 4: he gets fired he's oh, Bradford me doing pilates iconic.
Speaker 2: Period, who was doing pilates back then?
Speaker 1: By the way, Alan Dale. Good for you, because I mean, no, two.
Speaker 3: Takes of me on a on a Reformer. You're not
Speaker 3: that queen we're gonna have I don't think that I
Speaker 3: could do it.
Speaker 2: When he said my leg is cramping? Was that an improv?
Speaker 1: Or was that like? I don't know. We need to
Speaker 1: talk to him. We need to speak to him.
Speaker 2: How many of these are the questions we want to know?
Speaker 3: I would be hysterical crying if I had to do
Speaker 3: more than two takes Reformer.
Speaker 4: I would be hysterical laughing at you doing two takes.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure you would.
Speaker 4: Guess what I could do. I could do all day
Speaker 4: on a Pilate's Reformer.
Speaker 6: Good.
Speaker 1: You know what we should do it?
Speaker 3: We should maybe do it as a challenge, maybe maybe
Speaker 3: a little like a Patreon bonus episode. See how many
Speaker 3: times that on A can lift your leg up on
Speaker 3: a Reformer?
Speaker 2: I could do it a lot, trust and believe I'm old.
Speaker 2: The girl's got to stay in shape.
Speaker 1: I'm want to see how many times I'd like to
Speaker 1: count I could do it. Listen how many times?
Speaker 2: Take care of myself? When I tell you, everybody out there, I.
Speaker 1: Think you can do it. Twenty times. Yes, how many?
Speaker 3: What do you think what do you think is the
Speaker 3: most left.
Speaker 1: On the reformer? Back and forth though, oh, twenty.
Speaker 2: Would be nothing.
Speaker 1: What do you think.
Speaker 2: Nothing? I could do I could do.
Speaker 3: fIF well, no, but Terry Weinberg is sitting in the
Speaker 3: room and and no she's Harry doesn't count because like
Speaker 3: Terry can do like seven thousand.
Speaker 2: All right, fine, I could do fifteen. All right, look
Speaker 2: back to the business at hand. We don't have to
Speaker 2: talk about my extreme workout session, which I do her
Speaker 2: hot bod, my hot BD.
Speaker 4: Okay, so then we oh, so then Daniel comes through
Speaker 4: and this is so this is what this is when
Speaker 4: you know, oh.
Speaker 2: This show is different. Right, Daniel comes to the house,
Speaker 2: he gets she reads his beads. Yes, she tells him
Speaker 2: what's up?
Speaker 4: Like I'm on the phone with the crappy HMO. Like
Speaker 4: we're dealing with real issues right right now, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. And it's not a finger wag and
Speaker 4: it's not a you know or anything like that.
Speaker 2: It's like this is the reality of most people, bro,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and two to again to to Silvio's credit, our
Speaker 4: writer and our head writer and you know, brilliant man
Speaker 4: and to Richard Sheppard, Daniel is also comes with his
Speaker 4: own sort of baggage.
Speaker 3: No, he knows that he know, he knows that he
Speaker 3: fucked up like and and and he knows that he
Speaker 3: did her dirty in like such a nasty and hideous way.
Speaker 3: And I think that, like, you know, the I think
Speaker 3: that it's it's great that like we're talking about like
Speaker 3: especially in the pilot talking about HMO, we're talking about
Speaker 3: insurance paying what a day to day.
Speaker 2: Paying rent, like I have to help my family pay
Speaker 2: the rent, right, you know, I'm not you know, doing this.
Speaker 2: But he comes through with, look, I lost a brother,
Speaker 2: you know, and so you.
Speaker 3: Immediately he is extremely sympathetic. And that's such a credit
Speaker 3: to Silvio and to end to the way that Eric
Speaker 3: maybe has played it.
Speaker 4: I think Eric really could have come off as such
Speaker 4: a dude brow and such a.
Speaker 1: Douche like weird finance bro.
Speaker 4: And there's such a sensitivity to him really like in
Speaker 4: real life too, he had just had a baby, like
Speaker 4: you know, I think Eric just really like we don't
Speaker 4: give him enough props, but he just he did such
Speaker 4: a beautiful job with that character because he really could
Speaker 4: have been a you know, a two dimensional, just douche
Speaker 4: and he really wasn't cutting dry stereotype rich white dude bullshit.
Speaker 2: He just wasn't. He's just kind of felt for him.
Speaker 3: But there was also like there was there is such
Speaker 3: dimension to Daniel me, you know. And and as we
Speaker 3: continue on talking about the first season, I mean, the
Speaker 3: ways in which Betty and Daniel's relationship like grow like
Speaker 3: ebbs and flows and grows and really flourishes is so
Speaker 3: I feel like was and and if you're if you're
Speaker 3: only watching the show for the first time right now,
Speaker 3: you know that there's such such a beautiful friendship, like
Speaker 3: they're just they're just really really like they're I don't know,
Speaker 3: I don't want to say buddy, because I feel like
Speaker 3: that that is I don't know, I feel like, but.
Speaker 4: I think there's also something for all of us to
Speaker 4: learn from that too, is that you know, that's the
Speaker 4: ultimate sort of like those two worlds colliding. And we
Speaker 4: did we on this show, and by we, I mean
Speaker 4: Terry and Silvio and Ben and like all of the
Speaker 4: people behind the Salma, everybody who's behind the show really
Speaker 4: understood that, like these two worlds can which is what
Speaker 4: we're really missing in today's world is that there are
Speaker 4: there is space and room for all of us to exist,
Speaker 4: and so and we just and to hear one another
Speaker 4: and to like understand each other's point of.
Speaker 3: View, and also to be able to to uh to
Speaker 3: questions and happen and to have difficult conversations and and
Speaker 3: and I think that that is what Daniel and Betty do.
Speaker 3: That's right at the end of this episode when he
Speaker 3: does come to the house, is that they do, in
Speaker 3: fact have a very difficult conversation where he does where
Speaker 3: he does owe her an apology, but she also doesn't
Speaker 3: have text about what he's been through. That's right, and
Speaker 3: so when she gets that context, it's also kind of
Speaker 3: really informative for her. You know that he isn't just
Speaker 3: some like fuck off, like dude, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Like and then here comes the Prime Minister ash Christina,
Speaker 4: who saves the day because she found Betty's idea for
Speaker 4: the new ad campaign because Gina Garson's character hated the
Speaker 4: first one, and so.
Speaker 2: Christina ends up putting that on Daniel's desk.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: They make it, They pitch the idea. Jeina Gershon's character
Speaker 4: loves it. My favorite thing. Also about Jena Garston putting
Speaker 4: the cigarette on the table.
Speaker 3: Why does she say at the end, make sure one
Speaker 3: of them is by ding each other.
Speaker 4: And she puts her cigarette out of it, and all
Speaker 4: the assistants were smoking indoors.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's something that we can also leave in two thousands.
Speaker 2: I suppose so.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, well but I did love it.
Speaker 4: But I I think that was her idea too, to
Speaker 4: put the cigarette on you think.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was. I can't imagine that that's on.
Speaker 2: A question I'm going to ask her.
Speaker 4: So then we end up with the person's surgery where
Speaker 4: Vanessa goes to see the serious persons woman. We don't
Speaker 4: know who it is. Well, we're assuming it's Faye, right Summers, right,
Speaker 4: But well we shall see.
Speaker 1: What we we we in fact shall see.
Speaker 3: But what I will say too about the uh the
Speaker 3: Betty pitch for the for the Fabia cosmetics thing is
Speaker 3: is another is another way that we are talking about
Speaker 3: like women in such a reverence like reference like reverential
Speaker 3: way on this show. Is that like you know, like
Speaker 3: talking about motherhood, talking about being a daughter, talking about
Speaker 3: like like all of these things that I just think
Speaker 3: that are just so gosh, we just I don't know,
Speaker 3: like I'm not even I think that's.
Speaker 4: Something that we can actually bring into twenty twenty five, right,
Speaker 4: I think that was something six.
Speaker 2: That we can that we actually should be bringing back.
Speaker 4: Is that sort of sense of family and that sort
Speaker 4: of sense of like it is the little things that matter?
Speaker 4: Because wasn't that that was the vibe of the pitch, right?
Speaker 4: It's the little things, yes, little memories that really matter
Speaker 4: the most.
Speaker 3: You know, when we said that we were going to
Speaker 3: try to have richurch Epherd on the pod, we don't.
Speaker 2: Try on this pod.
Speaker 1: We make things happen.
Speaker 4: We are doers and we have made it happen. You're
Speaker 4: welcome people.
Speaker 3: This is the visionary director behind the pilot of Ugly Betties.
Speaker 3: This is creating the tone, creating the entire world. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is that. This is the the.
Speaker 4: Reason we have the tube, the reason we have the
Speaker 4: vibe yes that we had yes was because of this man,
Speaker 4: the king the icon Richard Cheer introduction.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I should always get that into actually
Speaker 6: deserve it. You guys just travel with me.
Speaker 4: Yes, not only that, you can just sort of travel
Speaker 4: with this clip.
Speaker 1: Carry it along.
Speaker 3: That's right, just show it to anyone who asked, Man,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for doing this.
Speaker 6: More excited to talk about this shows.
Speaker 2: It's so amazing. It's so amazing that I don't think
Speaker 2: I've seen you in well.
Speaker 1: A billion years.
Speaker 6: A billion years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, and there's so much to talk about.
Speaker 4: But I also I think what you need to know
Speaker 4: going in to this sort of thing is that markin
Speaker 4: Deltado has never watched the show. So we're doing the
Speaker 4: recap with him, and it's as it's his first time
Speaker 4: watching Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And I've seen I've seen the pilot, I've
Speaker 3: seen the episode that that you do, yes, and I've
Speaker 3: seen the very last So every Shady three I must
Speaker 3: be strange, right, It's weird because I feel like every uh,
Speaker 3: every time I look at myself on screen, I'm like,
Speaker 3: it's just so far away now, Like, especially being in
Speaker 3: the first season, I think it might get a little
Speaker 3: weird if we, like you know, end up doing like
Speaker 3: the fourth season where it doesn't feel as far away.
Speaker 1: But this is like a little kid, right, and so
Speaker 1: it changes.
Speaker 4: Even just in the four seasons that we did, you
Speaker 4: changed so dramatically from that a little eleven year old.
Speaker 6: It's also kind of a gift that you didn't see
Speaker 6: it in a way because now you get to like
Speaker 6: experience it. Yeah, and and like I'm sure your mind
Speaker 6: is blown by a lot of time.
Speaker 3: I'm really you know, it turns out every every every
Speaker 3: time that like we've talked about it, even just you know,
Speaker 3: off the mic right is just being like, Wow, this
Speaker 3: is a really good program.
Speaker 5: Actually really likes I like this.
Speaker 6: It's not bad.
Speaker 3: But I just want to like, you know, you really
Speaker 3: did set like the tone for what the show ended
Speaker 3: up becoming. And I just feel like we're just so
Speaker 3: excited to.
Speaker 1: Talk to you, honestly so much. But what did you
Speaker 1: How did you get involved?
Speaker 6: Well, So I had done the very first TV pilot
Speaker 6: I did was Criminal Minds, which couldn't be more the
Speaker 6: opposite of Ugly Betty. But I had also made this movie,
Speaker 6: The Matatorous, And so I had done Criminal Minds, and
Speaker 6: I I signed a deal and they were trying to
Speaker 6: figure out what the next pilot I would do. And
Speaker 6: I remember so distinctly because I got sent six scripts
Speaker 6: and my agent at the time said, do any of
Speaker 6: them except Ugly bet No, And and I read all
Speaker 6: of them and I'm like, but ugly, Betty's the best
Speaker 6: one by like by leaps inbound, like it's never going
Speaker 6: to get picked up. They the head of the network
Speaker 6: doesn't like it, you know, all of this stuff, and
Speaker 6: it was like this hard, and so they were trying
Speaker 6: to get me to do this other product that did
Speaker 6: end up getting picked up and ran for a season,
Speaker 6: and I was sort of they were getting a lot
Speaker 6: of pressure to do this other one with a big producer,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, but I just this is it's like.
Speaker 6: And then I spoke to Terry and I spoke to
Speaker 6: Sylvia and Sema and they were I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: you guys, this is the show. This is the show.
Speaker 6: And I could see it so clearly, you know, I
Speaker 6: could see the show just had so much possibility because
Speaker 6: it had like real heart, but it also was funny,
Speaker 6: and it had two different worlds, the world of the
Speaker 6: office and the world of the home, and it seemed like, hey,
Speaker 6: this is a And I was also like, I'd like
Speaker 6: to see this show to watch. But you know, as
Speaker 6: you guys, I'm sure have talked about the original show
Speaker 6: that this is based on had like a supermodel playing Betty,
Speaker 6: you know, but wearing glasses and so she would be
Speaker 6: not attractive, you know, or whatever. And as soon as
Speaker 6: I heard and America was already attached when I came on,
Speaker 6: And as soon as I had that, I was like,
Speaker 6: oh no, that's this is the only way that because
Speaker 6: this is this is now there's a real person, you know,
Speaker 6: and and and so it just became it kind of
Speaker 6: became inevitable in a way, and Sylvio, Sylvia and I
Speaker 6: just Sylvio and I just saw I to eye on
Speaker 6: what kind of show and what tone because.
Speaker 2: Tone is everything to this.
Speaker 6: Show and it was not like anything else on TV
Speaker 6: because there was a camp element.
Speaker 2: I was just going to say, this, it's so campy,
Speaker 2: but it's.
Speaker 6: There's a heart element like that combination was just not
Speaker 6: around at the time, and so or since Sylvia and
Speaker 6: I specifically just I remember very like I remember sitting
Speaker 6: at the Farmer's Market starting to go through the script
Speaker 6: and we were both like making each other laugh and
Speaker 6: every time I asked a question, and I felt like
Speaker 6: he sees the same show. And that made it so
Speaker 6: much easier in a way because we were able to
Speaker 6: you know, going into casting, going into design of the show,
Speaker 6: going into you know, every possible thing. So well, we'll
Speaker 6: get into many things. But but you know, when you're
Speaker 6: doing a pilot, you're not only casting your cast, but
Speaker 6: you're casting the look of the show.
Speaker 2: I mean, the look of the show is so iconic,
Speaker 2: it's such a.
Speaker 3: Huge and that somehow we talked about with uh Mark,
Speaker 3: with Mark Worthington about the design of you know, these
Speaker 3: two disparate worlds, the Mode Offices and the Suarez Home,
Speaker 3: and and that was one of the things that he
Speaker 3: said was kind of towing the line between fantasy and reality,
Speaker 3: especially in obviously in the Mode Offices, you know, and.
Speaker 6: What we wanted I was just what I didn't want
Speaker 6: was to have the Mode Offices be this like bright,
Speaker 6: amazing place and then we would get back to the
Speaker 6: house and it would be sort of like, ah, that's
Speaker 6: the house. It wants to be at the house. I
Speaker 6: was like, if the house doesn't work, it doesn't work,
Speaker 6: then it's an office comedy.
Speaker 2: And also like how many Latinos do you know their
Speaker 2: house is like right.
Speaker 3: Me?
Speaker 6: But I was like, let's make a house that we
Speaker 6: that we want to spend as much time in the
Speaker 6: house as we want to spend. So that was like
Speaker 6: but you know, it can't be cartoonish. We have to
Speaker 6: figure way to kick color and light and you know,
Speaker 6: and when you're doing a pilot, you're on practical locations.
Speaker 6: You're not building any sets. So we were looking for
Speaker 6: this mode office for weeks because every office was just
Speaker 6: an office, and so Mark and I and and we
Speaker 6: would just sit there going, what can we do to
Speaker 6: make this office interesting? Da? Da? And we were driving
Speaker 6: locations people nuts, you know, nuts, And finally we walked
Speaker 6: into this office downtown and it was It had the
Speaker 6: orange things, it had everything that makes that set incredible
Speaker 6: was there. And I remember sitting there with the DP
Speaker 6: Vanya and myself and and and Mark and we were
Speaker 6: like finally and like the Locations guy started like tearing
Speaker 6: up because he's like he was like ready to kill
Speaker 6: kill himself, kill me, take out everyone. He was so frustrated.
Speaker 6: But we finally I was like, this is it, this
Speaker 6: is this is it. And I remember, like Silvio saw,
Speaker 6: we couldn't have been happier. And I remember being in
Speaker 6: the van driving feeling great and then getting a phone
Speaker 6: call basically saying we can't afford this, we cannot afford it.
Speaker 6: It was just this and we all sat in this
Speaker 6: car and this depression. It was because it wasn't like
Speaker 6: we had a backup, right, and we've been looking everywhere.
Speaker 6: So now we're like to start. We're trying to like
Speaker 6: lift ourselves up and be like, well this on our office.
Speaker 6: We could do that, we could paint the wall. But
Speaker 6: we we we got it. We just fadway. We fought
Speaker 6: for a lot of things like this was a situation.
Speaker 6: Terry and Ben and Sylvia and myself and someone we
Speaker 6: were united and trying to make this the best pilot
Speaker 6: because honestly, we knew it was a risk. We knew
Speaker 6: it wasn't a slam dunk. We knew the head of
Speaker 6: the network didn't love the idea. So we're like, we
Speaker 6: just have to be the best.
Speaker 2: We're the best they exact. I mean, I feel like
Speaker 2: that's such a through line of the show.
Speaker 4: First of all, the fact that we got against all odds,
Speaker 4: the people like you, people like you, people like Worthington
Speaker 4: who were sort of advice. Everybody said like, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 4: don't do this, don't do this, because Worthington had the
Speaker 4: same sort of story.
Speaker 2: It was like, I don't like it was the story, and.
Speaker 4: It was the whatever it was about this show in
Speaker 4: particular that we were able to get you, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I mean, that you were the one and you.
Speaker 6: Find I think I've told you this thing about your audition. Hell,
Speaker 6: but this is one of those things. This is like
Speaker 6: I just got chills thinking about it. Because it was
Speaker 6: a time when people were auditioning live, right, so it
Speaker 6: wasn't on tape. It was like two people would come
Speaker 6: into like a theater. It was such a weird thing
Speaker 6: for television, but it was like a little mini theater.
Speaker 6: And you know, it was already a lot of issues
Speaker 6: with the head of the network, who like, if he
Speaker 6: was in a bad mood, would not accept anyone, and
Speaker 6: if he was in a good mood, he'd take anyone.
Speaker 6: So it was like we were always like, yeah, can
Speaker 6: we bring the people we like in today? And they're like,
Speaker 6: yes today. And we had to bring in two people
Speaker 6: for every part because they wanted to be able to
Speaker 6: make a choice. But by bringing to people, we had
Speaker 6: to accept that maybe our top choice wasn't going to
Speaker 6: be their top choice. And if you're in a good situation,
Speaker 6: you can make arguments for and usually get what you want.
Speaker 6: But it wasn't a guarantee, and so we had to
Speaker 6: bring in two people. And there were two people we
Speaker 6: brought in, and you were the ringer. You were not
Speaker 6: our choice. You were our second choice. Serious, hold on,
Speaker 6: I'm gonna this is gonna make you happy, though. And
Speaker 6: you came in and you gave the greatest audition ever
Speaker 6: seen in my life, in my life, in my life.
Speaker 6: And I was like, because I had been talking to Silvia,
Speaker 6: like we can't we just she can't be it. We
Speaker 6: have to use it. This other girls, she is it.
Speaker 6: This is team. You came in and you didn't just
Speaker 6: win the part, you own the part. And it was like,
Speaker 6: oh well we're idiots and she's got it. And it
Speaker 6: was like inanimates. It was like done. But it was
Speaker 6: one of those great situations where like we were wrong.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, my heart is literally pound.
Speaker 1: That is incredible. I never did I never did that.
Speaker 2: The theater thing, no, because you were in you were
Speaker 2: back east.
Speaker 1: This was all in L A L. This was who
Speaker 1: did I go up against.
Speaker 2: I love to hear that.
Speaker 1: That is incredible, but it's true. I mean, you're you.
Speaker 2: I feel like we were all meant to be.
Speaker 6: It was a very It was very much that. And
Speaker 6: you know, this was a This pilot had that shining
Speaker 6: bright light of luck. Not every pilot, but it was
Speaker 6: just the right group of people at the right time.
Speaker 6: I mean, so many things that are iconic with the
Speaker 6: show just almost just didn't happen, like like that the set,
Speaker 6: the set of Mode almost didn't happen. Betty's glasses, I mean,
Speaker 6: we could not find those glasses.
Speaker 2: Tell this, Tell this, because I don't think we've told
Speaker 2: this yet.
Speaker 6: We took the glasses off our costume designer cat Field
Speaker 6: and by onto America fair like three days before we shot.
Speaker 6: I remember being like, no, that's it, sorry, we're taking
Speaker 6: your classes. Like it was like one of those things
Speaker 6: like crazy. Yeah. And you know, I just think that
Speaker 6: sometimes what goes wrong is that people don't aren't communicating
Speaker 6: the city. They want different shows and they don't know
Speaker 6: how to communicate it. And this was a case where
Speaker 6: if you got what this was and you were part
Speaker 6: of this team, did you understood it, understood it tonally,
Speaker 6: you understood it cast wise, and you know, we got
Speaker 6: actors who could be funny but also found the reality
Speaker 6: and the heart to it. Those things were incredibly important.
Speaker 1: I mean, I totally agree.
Speaker 3: I mean it's also I mean, it's just such a
Speaker 3: testament to the kind of alchemy of the show is
Speaker 3: that we all are still extremely close.
Speaker 1: I mean, like my best friend, I.
Speaker 2: Mean so and all of us are still so very much.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, like, but I think that that also lends
Speaker 3: itself to like when you're you know, kind of everyone
Speaker 3: being on the same page in terms of creating this world.
Speaker 6: And I just listen, it touched it changed television. So
Speaker 6: to be part of anything that changes the culture and
Speaker 6: changes like, it's you know, we've everyone's done other stuff
Speaker 6: and had great experiences during other stuff, but this was
Speaker 6: not only well, this was a success which never hurts
Speaker 6: and fun, but also changed the culture and in a
Speaker 6: great way. And to be part of that was you know,
Speaker 6: really cool.
Speaker 4: Did you know that that was going to happen? Like,
Speaker 4: could you sense that this was sort of going to
Speaker 4: be the iconic thing that it was. I mean, there
Speaker 4: had never been a lead of a Latin female lead,
Speaker 4: little tiny little thing too like to your point, not
Speaker 4: a supermodel, not this like you know, you know, just
Speaker 4: this sort of incredible actress who was just a person
Speaker 4: leading just.
Speaker 6: You know, the show doesn't work without America no matter
Speaker 6: what we do. She was so brilliant from the first second,
Speaker 6: and seeing her in wardrobe with the braces and the
Speaker 6: thing and the glass, I was like, and then she'd
Speaker 6: smile and You're like, oh my god, I love you.
Speaker 6: I love you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And I have to say this, this sounds ridiculous in retrospect,
Speaker 6: but the more I heard that the head of the
Speaker 6: network hated the show, the more I'm like, we're onto something.
Speaker 6: That's because it's not We've done enough TV, and we've
Speaker 6: done enough movies and we've done enough stuff that we
Speaker 6: know when something's working and not working, and this is working.
Speaker 6: So we just have to prove it to you. And
Speaker 6: we did, you know we from the first test of
Speaker 6: the edited show on, it was clear audiences just loved it,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean that first test of the edit.
Speaker 6: They test shows, right, so they took I don't know
Speaker 6: if you remember this what I did. They tested the
Speaker 6: show when we watched this audience watch it secretly through
Speaker 6: two way mirrors, and they just loved it. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 6: they're going to pick the show up, even if they
Speaker 6: don't want.
Speaker 2: Even if in spite of themselves correct.
Speaker 4: That was a thing that Mark Worthington talked a lot
Speaker 4: about it making sort of that New York the vibe
Speaker 4: of the New York of it all being such a
Speaker 4: part of the show. I mean, what was that like
Speaker 4: for you? Had you been able to shoot in New
Speaker 4: York like that before?
Speaker 6: Shooting in New York is so fun. It is just
Speaker 6: a crazy city and so like you get a huge
Speaker 6: amount of energy.
Speaker 4: Just didn't you have some sort of like gorilla moments
Speaker 4: too where it was like, we don't get we don't
Speaker 4: have a permit, We're just gonna fucking shoot it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that whole sequence for Betty is like walking the
Speaker 6: Dog in Times. Squeeze montage is one of the best,
Speaker 6: which they, by the way, stole completely in Devil Wear's
Speaker 6: product complex literally to her walking the Dog. I'm like
Speaker 6: that they literally stolen like less than a year after
Speaker 6: our pilot. But that's only a compliment. But uh, except
Speaker 6: I would you know, a big thank you? We did
Speaker 6: we just we just you know, listen, it wasn't we
Speaker 6: were we were there. There's a camera, there's thousands of
Speaker 6: extras for free.
Speaker 1: What are you going to do?
Speaker 6: You have an actor that no one really recognizes, so
Speaker 6: like you could just I'm like cross the street and
Speaker 6: like boom, and like someone cares. But by the time
Speaker 6: they realized the care, I like that, you know, I
Speaker 6: feel like that's a good, good energy of New York City.
Speaker 6: But you know, listen, there's things that matter, like where
Speaker 6: Betty's house was. I needed an elevated train so that
Speaker 6: I wanted to see the elevated train. And this was
Speaker 6: a big another one where the locations guy was going
Speaker 6: to go nuts. I'm like, no, there's a part of
Speaker 6: Queens that this and and this type of house that
Speaker 6: would be there, and and it feels it's not too big,
Speaker 6: it's not too small. It is it's the home of
Speaker 6: people who are working, people who you know, And it
Speaker 6: was that was like another one where we couldn't find it,
Speaker 6: or they find the train but the wrong house, and
Speaker 6: find the right house but no train, and we finally
Speaker 6: found that so perfect, you know, and then of course
Speaker 6: you're waiting for the train. That's like because you want
Speaker 6: to get the shot of the train, and they're like,
Speaker 6: you send a p a up to the next stop
Speaker 6: and they're like, there's a.
Speaker 3: I mean one of the most one of the one
Speaker 3: of my greatest memories from from the Pilot is shooting
Speaker 3: that scene with Betty on the stoop with that because
Speaker 3: they you know, they're so good.
Speaker 6: Had you done acting before?
Speaker 1: Hardly? I mean not how did we find you? I
Speaker 1: don't know, like Mike, you did.
Speaker 2: It like you did the Chappelle Show.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Like I I'd been on a few things in
Speaker 6: this level that not all children have.
Speaker 3: Well I wish that I wish that I could, uh
Speaker 3: which I could locate that right now, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. But they but then I remember in the
Speaker 3: finale episode, like they read they redid it, like with
Speaker 3: the same colors.
Speaker 1: That we were wearing.
Speaker 3: And I just I remember being so nervous that day
Speaker 3: because it was it was the most words that I had,
Speaker 3: like what was was was speaking in the episode, And
Speaker 3: I just have such a vivid memory of like recalling
Speaker 3: how supportive you were, impatient you were in America as well,
Speaker 3: because I think that now as as as a grown man,
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know that I would have the
Speaker 3: patience for for children in the same way that that
Speaker 3: that you did. And I just felt like just so great.
Speaker 6: I mean I would just say, like when you're dealing
Speaker 6: with a kid who's who's doing a good job, Like
Speaker 6: being patient is the smart thing to do, Like you're
Speaker 6: doing a good job if you were, if it was,
Speaker 6: if you weren't right for that part, then we had
Speaker 6: miscast you right because a kid is a kid, right,
Speaker 6: But you knew your lines, you you understood what the
Speaker 6: scenes are about. You were trying to do it correctly,
Speaker 6: and you were great. So like whatever, I don't know,
Speaker 6: I feel like these are the good things, you know.
Speaker 6: I've on sets where the kid is not great, or
Speaker 6: there are two nervous that can't do it and that
Speaker 6: or there's too much of a kid actor out of
Speaker 6: their minds and a lot of that. Then is it's
Speaker 6: my fault I've cast the wrong kid, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean? Like I think, you know, sometimes when the
Speaker 6: scene doesn't work, everyone's like, what's wrong with this? The
Speaker 6: writing and the scene doesn't work. I'm like, the set
Speaker 6: doesn't work right, something else, something else doesn't work. But
Speaker 6: the writing we know works, but they can't. There's no
Speaker 6: way they both sit on this couch and we've only
Speaker 6: offered them this couch to sit on, and they like
Speaker 6: so a lot of like a lot of work of
Speaker 6: directing is thinking about those things, like what is going
Speaker 6: to make this scene work on every level. I'm a
Speaker 6: big fan of, like make sure the guy who's playing
Speaker 6: the waiter who's putting down the plate of food is
Speaker 6: looks like he'd be in a waiter in the restaurant
Speaker 6: that they're exactly because if they don't, then the actor
Speaker 6: is automatically sensing bullshit. And can I say.
Speaker 3: That are there are no rules.
Speaker 2: To that point? I mean, we had a huge cast and.
Speaker 4: The way that I feel like we spoke about this
Speaker 4: in the in the recap of the pilot, I.
Speaker 2: Knew who each character was at.
Speaker 4: The pilot, and I don't think I've ever watched a
Speaker 4: pilot before since that that's happened.
Speaker 2: Like every single one of us had a moment.
Speaker 4: Where it was like I know this person, but we
Speaker 4: were so that person is fully real.
Speaker 1: But in the table reads, yeah, like that.
Speaker 3: It was like that even before you know the glasses
Speaker 3: and the braces and all of that and all of
Speaker 3: you know, whatever are like accoutrement, was like before you
Speaker 3: were dressed like Hilda, it was very clear that like
Speaker 3: that's who you were.
Speaker 1: You were like you did one of the table reads
Speaker 1: in a white sun dressed darling.
Speaker 6: You know what.
Speaker 3: But it was it was like it was undeniable, like
Speaker 3: who these people were.
Speaker 4: Sorry, but I think I mean, was that difficult because
Speaker 4: it was such a huge cast and each one of
Speaker 4: us did have sort of it.
Speaker 6: Was a big cast, and it was a talented, talented cast. Yeah,
Speaker 6: Silvio script, you know, which had been developed for a
Speaker 6: long time and had the tires kicked of. It was
Speaker 6: a really strong script. In fact, one of my comments
Speaker 6: was the pilot feels like we're done. Like I was like,
Speaker 6: this could be just done, Like it feels like a
Speaker 6: movie if we added thirty more minutes.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: It's like she gets the job, she gets the thing,
Speaker 6: the boss likes her, like things are like wow, the
Speaker 6: house is saved or whatever. So everything got worked out
Speaker 6: and I was like should we should we be doing this?
Speaker 6: But but but the good news of that was that
Speaker 6: it also felt like the characters were so rich it
Speaker 6: didn't you know. And and and clearly Sylvian and his
Speaker 6: writers and the producers saw the rest, they saw all
Speaker 6: the future that can happen. But they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 6: these characters can just keep going, which they did for
Speaker 6: you know, really strongly, for four years. It never felt
Speaker 6: like anyone wasn't we could have gone longer. We could
Speaker 6: have gone we could have gone longer.
Speaker 4: Did the did once once the pilot was done because
Speaker 4: there was so much sort of.
Speaker 2: You know, push back against sort.
Speaker 3: Of show as you've mentioned, I mean it was it
Speaker 3: was surely not at the top of anyone's list.
Speaker 4: So I test people watched it and liked it, But
Speaker 4: did the did the network finally?
Speaker 2: Like did they ever? Were their notes?
Speaker 6: Were?
Speaker 5: There?
Speaker 2: Was there still push by?
Speaker 6: We didn't get a lot of notes. I mean, the
Speaker 6: pilot was too long. Back in the day when you
Speaker 6: just did network TV, I'd be very specific. I remember
Speaker 6: in the edit room with Terry Weinberg and Sylvia and
Speaker 6: the editor cutting frame. There was a shot where these
Speaker 6: birds fly up in battery when a park near downtown,
Speaker 6: and it was a gorgeous shot and it started super
Speaker 6: wide and came in tight, and we were like, we
Speaker 6: need to be like forty two minutes and thirty seconds,
Speaker 6: and we were like forty two minutes in thirty four seconds.
Speaker 6: I'm like, a right, I'll trade you half a second
Speaker 6: of birds fly like it was like the most amazing
Speaker 6: things that you have to do but.
Speaker 2: I can't the Cheerios commercial just before.
Speaker 6: Second Yeah, exactly exactly. I mean it was so crazy.
Speaker 6: But you know, even after they picked up the show,
Speaker 6: they were like, we're gonna put it on Fridays. They
Speaker 6: didn't want the title Ugly Betty. They wanted it to
Speaker 6: be Betty.
Speaker 1: The Ugly, you know, which is wild.
Speaker 6: And there was all this feeling of like, we don't
Speaker 6: know what we have, we don't know what we have.
Speaker 6: But the fact was we did know what we have,
Speaker 6: and I think that like a number of good strong
Speaker 6: forces at ABC also knew what they had. So it
Speaker 6: was and so maybe the top person maybe did or didn't.
Speaker 6: I don't actually know at that point whether he came around,
Speaker 6: but I think people around him did come around. And
Speaker 6: then the press got around it and it became a
Speaker 6: story because nothing like that had ever been on TV,
Speaker 6: no one like America had ever fronted a show, and
Speaker 6: it pulled off a tone that had yet to be
Speaker 6: done on television. All of this became a big story,
Speaker 6: you know, and then you know, nothing succeeds like success,
Speaker 6: Like everyone at the ABC's like we always knew this was
Speaker 6: going to be. This is always this is always success,
Speaker 6: Like the agent who was like, do any show, but
Speaker 6: this is like I always told you should have done this.
Speaker 1: Show, right, Nothing succeeds like success. I love that. I'm
Speaker 1: going to start using that.
Speaker 2: Did you did you watch like after the pilot? Did
Speaker 2: you watch this?
Speaker 6: Was? This is For a long time, I wouldn't do
Speaker 6: any other episodes of a show other than the pilot
Speaker 6: because I'm like, pilots are this blessed, beautiful thing in
Speaker 6: which you have a lot of time, a lot more time. Yeah,
Speaker 6: really developed the characters for herse and talk through every
Speaker 6: single thing, and and regular television week two week is
Speaker 6: is not that And there's a lot of pleasures in
Speaker 6: that too. And in retrospect, I probably made a mistake.
Speaker 6: I think it might have been fun to keep directing
Speaker 6: on that show because it was so much fun. But
Speaker 6: for whatever the reason, I didn't. So I watched like
Speaker 6: the second episode, I was like, oh, there, we're in
Speaker 6: good hands. It's gonna be funt it. And it took
Speaker 6: years before my stepdaughter was like, I want to watch
Speaker 6: a show, and I'm like, well, let's just start watching
Speaker 6: every Betty. And we started watching it and watched all
Speaker 6: four seasons, you know, eating popcorn and watching it and
Speaker 6: it was like the greatest bonding thing.
Speaker 2: How old was she then?
Speaker 6: She was like, I want to say eight.
Speaker 2: Or nine, you know, and that's when my daughter age.
Speaker 6: Four and loved it. And there were a few things that,
Speaker 6: you know, certainly that were like what what's going on here?
Speaker 6: What's what's she doing under the desk? But that is
Speaker 6: there were definitely some there were definitely there was definitely
Speaker 6: some questions, but it was great and for me kind
Speaker 6: of a little bit, I guess, like you, market was
Speaker 6: like I was removed enough from it to be like
Speaker 6: I just fully enjoyed it, and I remember like I'm
Speaker 6: texting you and texting America and Sylvia like the show's
Speaker 6: really good and not Yeah.
Speaker 4: Okay, So in wrapping up, since we have you here,
Speaker 4: not to put you on the spot or anything, but Ben,
Speaker 4: we're all obviously keen on doing a sort of a
Speaker 4: limited series reboot. We're all desperate to do it.
Speaker 6: Every single one already offered to do it.
Speaker 4: Okay, good because Ben Silvan came in here, we didn't
Speaker 4: have to ask he emailing. I know, it's a lot
Speaker 4: of work and there's a lot of hurdles that we
Speaker 4: have to jump, but I think, you know, Ben Silverman
Speaker 4: was already like emailing, uh, you know, Disney to sort
Speaker 4: of get on the board.
Speaker 2: So you're in.
Speaker 6: I told America that if I was asked, I would
Speaker 6: be there.
Speaker 1: We are, We're we're back in a hundred.
Speaker 6: We're getting people wanted. There's not even a question, No,
Speaker 6: not even a question. There's so many story more stories
Speaker 6: to tell, so many, And you guys are like, I
Speaker 6: know there's a man sitting I don't know what happened.
Speaker 5: Yeah, gay, very gay gay man, very gay man sitting
Speaker 5: right here before.
Speaker 1: Before we go.
Speaker 3: Though, I do have to say this to Richard that
Speaker 3: when I was watching it back, just a funny thing
Speaker 3: that I was just.
Speaker 1: Like the gayest kid in America.
Speaker 3: Like that's the only thing that I have consistently said
Speaker 3: every episode that we have recapped.
Speaker 2: Was like you no one like you on TV.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that it was. I'm not saying it's
Speaker 3: a bad thing. I'm just saying that I was great.
Speaker 6: But again, it was like these choices were like, this
Speaker 6: is what's going on? Yeah, exactly, the brothers gay, great,
Speaker 6: moving on exactly.
Speaker 4: I remember, but I remember I remember America saying that
Speaker 4: in an interview, like you know, how does it feel
Speaker 4: to you know, the first Latin And she was like
Speaker 4: it's great, you know, first Latin family. But she was like,
Speaker 4: I'll be really psyched when they just asked me what
Speaker 4: it's like to play this character. Doesn't have to have
Speaker 4: to be a Latin. You know, the fact that we're
Speaker 4: doing this it's amazing, but like this should be normal,
Speaker 4: This should be a thing.
Speaker 2: And by the way, hasn't happened since so.
Speaker 3: And it's and it's not I mean, but also even
Speaker 3: even in like the even in.
Speaker 1: The queer spaces, like you know, like there's.
Speaker 3: It's got to be like niche and or or that
Speaker 3: you're like pigeonholed into like you're you're there's still like
Speaker 3: the trope of like sassy gay x right, you know
Speaker 3: what i mean, or like flank here, you know what
Speaker 3: i mean, living in the Yeah, like be the funny
Speaker 3: gay one. And it's like, by the way, I'm more
Speaker 3: than happy to be the funny gay one.
Speaker 1: Well you are, well, but I also a career off
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of people are risk averse in general
Speaker 6: to doing anything that is it all. They're just scared
Speaker 6: about everything like, so it's whenever you can get something
Speaker 6: through the system that is made with individuals, not a
Speaker 6: corporate point of view. So Sylvio from the beginning very clearly,
Speaker 6: so all this family and this work world, he personalized
Speaker 6: it to many of the things that were in his life,
Speaker 6: and he entrusted the creation of it to a group
Speaker 6: of people behind and in front of the cameras, who
Speaker 6: who who agreed with and wanted to only enhance what
Speaker 6: he wanted to do, and because of that individuality of
Speaker 6: him then spread out with a lot of people created
Speaker 6: that you created.
Speaker 2: That also took a huge risk with the with the novella.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, I said it was real last question,
Speaker 4: but like now I'm remembering because the novella did.
Speaker 2: Come into it a lot. In our stuff, the novella
Speaker 2: and all like shooting that.
Speaker 3: Those talks a lot about the differentiation of the kind
Speaker 3: of fantastical nature of the world and the camp nature
Speaker 3: of like the actual world that you were creating, and
Speaker 3: then having to heighten that even more for the novellas.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, that was that was something.
Speaker 4: That I mean, how is that to shoot just because
Speaker 4: it is you know, I mean, like you're a white
Speaker 4: guy should a novella and it was really perfect.
Speaker 6: Well I was, she said very clearly. It's like when
Speaker 6: actors act on a telenevela they act for all three cameras.
Speaker 6: And as soon as she said that, I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: well then please very distinctly act for all three cameras.
Speaker 6: So she does her thing and she looks at all
Speaker 6: three cameras and it was like, what am I I
Speaker 6: don't have to do anything. I mean, I knew we
Speaker 6: created a great set. We got it was a perfect
Speaker 6: little scene. She was dressed perfectly, and it was you know,
Speaker 6: it was so you know, and we had three cameras going,
Speaker 6: so it actually was so didn't there were three came
Speaker 6: so that we could get that three camera look. But
Speaker 6: it was great, and you know, it helped to have
Speaker 6: her tell, you know, well, yes, you're actually it's like
Speaker 6: the most perfect thing in the world.
Speaker 2: No question. But it did.
Speaker 4: It did go throughout and it was it was excellent
Speaker 4: every single time that conceit of having the novella come
Speaker 4: into it, it was to.
Speaker 3: Me and that was something that lived, Yeah, that lived,
Speaker 3: like starting on the novella and like that that and.
Speaker 2: It was so specific to me.
Speaker 4: I mean, I grew up in a house where the
Speaker 4: novellas were on to you know, volume e levin all
Speaker 4: the time, you know, in the house, and it just
Speaker 4: was and it just it rang so real through the campiness,
Speaker 4: through the craziness, through all of it. That was a real,
Speaker 4: really beautiful sort of like touch and tribute to us
Speaker 4: I think as a community.
Speaker 1: It just was.
Speaker 2: It was just a great thing to see because it
Speaker 2: was just so normal.
Speaker 4: Like you said, it was just like he's watching his No,
Speaker 4: that that's what you do, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So we are.
Speaker 6: Wait, we waited a little bit for hair and makeup.
Speaker 1: Oh on that. I know.
Speaker 2: This is not a question that we were going to
Speaker 2: ask you. What I'm gonna ask you. Anyway, The first
Speaker 2: scene that America shot was that photo shoot.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 2: So that's crazy to me because that's a huge scene.
Speaker 2: Her shoes, I can't imagine. Was it because of Vanessa
Speaker 2: was coming in late?
Speaker 6: Well have you talked about the Vanessa?
Speaker 2: Yes, oh yeah, but we've gone in.
Speaker 6: I mean that was a situation in which.
Speaker 4: You know, when she did the table read and she
Speaker 4: read it like this I'm gonna do Daniel, You're not
Speaker 4: going to be the editor the magazine.
Speaker 6: It was such a it was this.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I was like, what have it?
Speaker 6: It was so so the actor who was a cast
Speaker 6: because basically we were told we should cast her because
Speaker 6: it would make the head of the network happy. It
Speaker 6: was really bad. You know, she she's been good in
Speaker 6: other things, but she was really bad and she wasn't
Speaker 6: going to get any better. And I got really scared
Speaker 6: because I had all these visions of how the show
Speaker 6: should look. And then I'm like, oh, but I'm going
Speaker 6: to have to shoot her like you shoot a dog.
Speaker 6: Not that she is a dog, no, no, not saying that,
Speaker 6: but how you shoot it dog, which is that you
Speaker 6: have to shoot it in close and maybe there'll be
Speaker 6: a moment where and it will work. And I'm like,
Speaker 6: but she's the bad guy. Like the show only works.
Speaker 6: Die Hard works because Alan Ridman, it is the greatest
Speaker 6: bad guy. But we can't have Lassie be the bad guy.
Speaker 6: It can't happen. And and and it. It became this battle,
Speaker 6: and I remember they they don't the studio didn't want
Speaker 6: to replace her. There was all this politics because of
Speaker 6: the head of the network. Sylvia and I were freaking
Speaker 6: The f a yes, And in my recollection, the way
Speaker 6: it happened was we had several expensive locations at the
Speaker 6: beginning of the shoot, some of our most expensive locations,
Speaker 6: including like the dining room at Mode and the I
Speaker 6: forget what it was, but several of the most expensive ones.
Speaker 6: And we were shooting on film back then because it
Speaker 6: before digital hello, and we had to send that film
Speaker 6: from New York to LA to get developed to then
Speaker 6: be brought to daily, So it would have been two
Speaker 6: to three days before the network saw the day. And
Speaker 6: once I realized that, I realized they're going to fire
Speaker 6: her after they see her, but we'll have shot three days,
Speaker 6: so we're gonna have to reshoot all of her shit,
Speaker 6: all of this, which is going to be so expensive
Speaker 6: because there are three most expensive locations. And I finally
Speaker 6: was like, you know what, I'm sick of talking to
Speaker 6: the creative people about replacing her, and I went to
Speaker 6: the financial people and I'm like, I literally was like, guys,
Speaker 6: this is three and fifty thousand dollars. You're gonna have
Speaker 6: to redo again. You're just burning this money because on Wednesday,
Speaker 6: when you see these dailies, you're firing her. And that
Speaker 6: got her replaced and Vanessa flew in literally arrived I
Speaker 6: think it early morning. Yes, went to set. We had
Speaker 6: cute cards because she had just got in the script.
Speaker 6: I think upon getting off the plane, you know, and
Speaker 6: shot that big boardroom scene was her first scene. But yes,
Speaker 6: we did shoot that scene at the photo shoot early
Speaker 6: and one of the reasons we did was that I
Speaker 6: like to start with something incredibly challenging because I feel
Speaker 6: like it ups the ante for everybody on the crew.
Speaker 6: Like you do it, you finish it, you feel great,
Speaker 6: You've like really proven yourself, and you're also explaining to
Speaker 6: everyone this is how we're gonna work. We're not doing
Speaker 6: the easy roll. We'll do the more complicated.
Speaker 2: About this life lesson.
Speaker 1: Really, I think that is so that is so profound, That.
Speaker 2: Is profound, That is actually and also setting.
Speaker 3: The standard of like what it is that that you're expecting,
Speaker 3: like the quality of work.
Speaker 4: And I mean for America that that was a real
Speaker 4: it's hard for her, but you know what, I.
Speaker 3: Think that honestly like, yes, it must have been hard
Speaker 3: as your first day, but honestly, like the way that
Speaker 3: she had to kind of emote in that in that
Speaker 3: scene in terms of her embarrassment and humiliation and just.
Speaker 6: Go for it. Listen, you're gonna have to get it.
Speaker 6: And she had it in her. It was clear she did.
Speaker 6: I mean, it was clear from moment one of meeting
Speaker 6: her that she was she was an actor who was
Speaker 6: going to deliver. And so it was you know, and.
Speaker 2: Even Eric Eric had such a moment too.
Speaker 6: Eric, Yeah, it's an easy day.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, he had a whole scene where he had
Speaker 4: to like sort of be this dick and then he
Speaker 4: had to like have that regret and that you know, realism.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was such a brilliant scene. And I can't.
Speaker 4: Believe that that was the first scene you started with,
Speaker 4: but hearing your philosophy that that is kind of brilliant,
Speaker 4: and you're right, it's like.
Speaker 1: Well, we're in, We're in, We're in, y'all.
Speaker 2: This is it. This is the trip we're going on,
Speaker 2: this is our journey.
Speaker 3: And even starting with something that like is you know,
Speaker 3: obviously technically a really like hard scene to shoot, but
Speaker 3: just such raw emotion to kind of start there and
Speaker 3: then be like, we have a lot of fun stuff
Speaker 3: that we're doing to you know, this was kind of
Speaker 3: like the kind of emotional crescendo of the entire episode,
Speaker 3: right is like when she that, it's like, no, but
Speaker 3: we're going to do a lot of fun stuff and
Speaker 3: like funny stuff too.
Speaker 4: You know, well, you are a king among men, You
Speaker 4: are a creative genius.
Speaker 2: You are the puppy Chulo to are to our show.
Speaker 2: You are the big Zaddy.
Speaker 6: One of the great experiences of my life. I couldn't
Speaker 6: be more excited to see you both, Uh Terry, and
Speaker 6: to feel part of of something that you know, has
Speaker 6: stood the test. People are still talking about, still.
Speaker 2: Talking about it. It has changed television.
Speaker 6: I can't wait to be on set with you for.
Speaker 2: The Get ready, it's happening.
Speaker 1: No, it actually is happening.
Speaker 3: It's not a when it's as I was like, it's not,
Speaker 3: it's not ever.
Speaker 6: It's amazing Jesus.
Speaker 2: But we love you, We charged you.
Speaker 4: We're so lucky you are ours and you know, I
Speaker 4: really thank you for coming in you and talking to us.
Speaker 2: This is it was incredible. We even got a little tea.
Speaker 1: I know we did get a lot of it. We
Speaker 1: got a lot of tea. What do you mean a little.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you? So guess who we have coming up next?
Speaker 1: An Academy Award nominated actress.
Speaker 2: Not only that, but a Golden Globe winning.
Speaker 1: Amy Award winning winner, America Ferrara.
Speaker 2: She's here.
Speaker 1: Our monkey is coming onto the pod.
Speaker 3: A monkey says, stay tuned for next week of Viva Betty,
Speaker 3: because you're going to get the full tea. Oh.
Speaker 4: Viva Betty is a production of Propagate Content in partnership
Speaker 4: with Iheart's Mike Waduda Podcast Networks.
Speaker 1: We are your hosts On Ortiz and Mark Delacato.
Speaker 4: Our executive producers are Terry Weinberg Linley and Diego Tapia.
Speaker 3: Our senior producer is Emily Carr, and the show is
Speaker 3: directed and edited by Mark.
Speaker 4: For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 4: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows