Great Interview With Ugly Betty’s Tony Plana
He is the calm in the middle of a million storms on Ugly Betty. Actor Tony Plana plays Ignactio Suarez on the show, and although the character is a former undocumented immigrant and for years considered himself a murderer, he is by far the most “normal” person on the show. With Santos gone, Ignacio is the much-needed grounding for the show, which would otherwise collapse of its own weight of eccentric characters.
Entertainment reporter Greg Hernandez recently interviewed Plana at the blog Out In Hollywood. It is a very good read. Here are some excerpts:
[about playing Ignacio] : It feels like an epiphany for me after so many years of struggling and watching Latinos as a group try to penetrate the industry and become an intregal part of it, an included part of it. The fact that we’re starting to see an evolution of Latino characters in television that are almost automatically included now as part of the central world in most series. That’s huge”
Read on for more.
[on how things used to be] : It was bad. The only time you hired a Latino is when they did the gang show, the drug show or the illegal immigrant show. I believe that ‘Ugly Betty’ has gone a long way towards eradicating these very deeply established stereotypes toward Latinos…It has tackled issues in a very intelligent way and still entertained us. That’s what I think is remarkable about this program.
Then there’s this about Justin. Is Justin gay?:
“He’s not sexualized yet, he’s a boy. So we can’t really be talking about a gay character. What’s more important is that he’s an artist and he’s extremely sensitive to design, to color, to music to art. So if you have a boy born into your family that is different that way, that is not an athlete or he’s got these special gifts, you need to not supress those gifts but support them, encourage them, nurture them, celebrate them. That’s the real lesson, I think, of Justin’s character. His sexuality will be an issue hopefully in the fourth or fifth season, down the line. And either way, it will be interesting. We could explore the stereotype of the gay. Are they always effeminate? No. There are effeminate gays and there are effeminate straights. It does not define them.”
I can’t tell you how much I wish other shows’ writers would learn to handle complex issues with such sublety. Many “beat you over the head” with issues, but the writers and producers of Ugly Betty save the over-the-top stuff for the comedy. It’s brilliant, and I hope it means Betty and her dad will have a long run on television.
There’s much more of the interview at Out In Hollywood, you should read it.
Source: Out In Hollywood
Tags: gay, Television, Tony Plana, Ugly BettyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Ignacio Suarez, Interviews, Tony Plana
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