It's the glasses mostly, and the ironworks of braces, and the dowdy clothes, and the soft pudgy body, but through the awkward costume the up-and-comer actress America Ferrera shined last night in the premiere of the new fall TV show "Ugly Betty." America plays adorable Betty Suarez, a fugly young woman who's dream of working at a fashion magazine comes true.
Through a stroke of luck, Betty gets a job at a tony New York fashion mag working for the new Editor-in-Chief who is the son of the mag's owner. Naturally, all the super-thin harpy assistants who work there are out to get her. On her first day on the job, Betty walks in wearing a super-loud red wool poncho with "Guadalajara" in tacky fluorescent green splashed across the front and walks into a glass door. Things go downhill from there.
The supporting cast members who play the stereotypical snobs are weak - except for Eric Mabius who play's Betty's playboy boss Daniel Meade - and archvillian Vanessa Williams' character is especially one-dimensional. Hopefully, that will get better. Kudos to Gina Gershon who was great as Flavia, the magazine chain's biggest ad customer. But then, Gina rarely turns in a bad performance in anything. That kid that plays the little brother is also excellent.
America, who also starred in "Real Women Have Curves" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", gives to Betty the odd combination of humility and dignity that makes her so appealing. "When I'm in character and I'm wearing Betty's costume, I never feel more confident, more beautiful and more pretty on the inside than when I'm myself," Ferrera said. "I wish that one day America can feel the way that I feel when I'm Betty, because when I'm Betty, there's a light that shines from the inside, and it's so wonderful to be her."
Produced by actress Salma Hayek, Ugly Betty is an Americanized version of a long-running Colombian telenovela (soap opera) entitled Yo soy Betty, la fea (I am Betty, the Ugly One).
