Silvio Horta on Ugly Betty Season 2 (and 3!)

Ugly Betty creator and executive producer Silvio Horta recently spoke at length about the show. He touched on what was right (and wrong) with season 2, what’s coming in season 3, Lindsay Lohan, the move to NYC, and much much more.

On Ugly Betty’s Move to New York City:

Horta says the cast was told about the move, which takes advantage of a huge tax break in New York, last week. He says that all of Ugly Betty’s regular cast members are making the move. (Whew!).

“They’re all moving, they’re all excited, some more than others,” Horta said of the cast’s reaction, who noted that the news of the move was “a lot to process.” “People who have families — it’s a little more difficult. But by and large, they’re excited about it.”

“The move will allow us to use the city more and to use the city in that very romantic, ‘Sex and the City’ way. That was my goal from the get-go, to capture that,” added Horta. Speaking of ‘Sex and the City’, costume designer Patricia Field, who worked on the pilot, will be coming back to the show. Eduardo Castro, costume designer for seasons 1 and 2, will not be making the move.

And thank goodness, Mark Worthington, responsible for those incredible Mode sets, will be making the move.

On the ‘refocusing’ of the show:

As Horta has said before, he repeated, “We lost Betty’s point of view. We kept adding layers and layers to the cake.” (Amen to that!).

“We’d have seven or eight story lines and it started to feel more sitcom-y,” he noted. “We needed to get back to the basics of what you felt in Season 1 and the first few episodes of Season 2. … We think there’s much more that the show can be.”

The show will now be firmly centered on Betty and her journey. Even the upcoming appearances of Lindsay Lohan will fit the new template: “The mantra now is, we will only do [a multi-episode guest arc] in so far as it illuminates our characters and the relationships between our main characters,” Horta said. “We felt this could be a guest arc that could really inform Betty’s journey — where she’s been and where she’s going — in a really cool, fun way.”

Lohan will be seen in the finale in a flashback scene. Her character was a “mean girl” in high school, but her life has taken a turn for the worse when she is introduced.

She and Betty run into each other,” Horta said, and next season Lohan’s character is “going to re-bond with Betty and things are going to be different — but things are going to go a little bit awry,” as they usually do in the magazine assistant’s world.

As far as the drama that is LiLo, Horta says she was “really nice”, and showed up early. “Lindsay now is just known for the tabloids, but she was – she is – an amazing actress,” Horta said. “I hope the magic can be recaptured here, and we all believe it can.”

More (some spoiler-ish) after the jump!

On the Finale and Season 3:

Wilhelmina will be back at Mode, and once again trying to ruin Daniel’s life. “Daniel almost can’t help himself — almost without Wilhemina’s help, he gets himself into trouble. He’s so afraid of her taking over that he’s his own worst enemy,” Horta said. “He’s going to have a shocker of a reveal [in the finale] and it’s going to end up playing into Wilhemina’s hand. It’s going to inform what he’s going to be doing next season.”

[So, the kid IS going to be Daniel's...]

There is, of course, going to be a cliffhanger on the Benry/Getty front: “Betty’s got a choice to make. I can’t say which [romantic interest] is or isn’t going to be coming back,” Horta said. [Note: watch imdb over the summer and see who has more side projects scheduled...]

And here’s some great news: Cliff will be back! The writers have been looking for an opportunity to bring him back and put in him in a story that will have him interacting with Betty and the show’s main cast. The writers don’t want to put him into a “satellite story” that only involves Marc. (This is excellent news! He is, after all, a Mode photographer – put him to work!)

On Rebecca Romijn/ Alexis: “Rebecca is wonderful. [But] there were so many episodes where we had so little for her to do. When we used her, we wanted to make sure we really used her and she was not someone who was just there. [Alexis] is not dying. She’ll be around and hopefully as long as the show is around” the character will occasionally reappear.

Horta also gives the most in-depth answer I’ve seen so far about the departures of riter Marco Pennette and director James Hayman. There were a lot of people who were unhappy – writers, cast, crew – and I was unhappy. There were different styles of working, different ways of seeing the show that just weren’t in keeping with what I had wanted and started. [Their departures were] just growing pains. It happens with every show, every organization – everything’s not going to be perfect, everyone’s not going to get along. They’re really talented and great. They were a big part of the show and what made the show [successful], and sometimes you grow and just grow in different directions.”

Horta says the Betty White episode is the perfect example of what went wrong in season 2. “It’s sort of a tricky thing with serialized shows – you’re going to start a path and it sounds great, but then if something isn’t working and if you’re already in there and you want to shift gears, it’s a little harder to do it. With a show like ‘Law & Order,’ it doesn’t matter what they did last week. I think we felt like the show’s still good and there are good moments in it. But I look back at the Betty White episode, and we had the paintball war going on, the Betty White story line, Betty and Gio dancing and Henry [too]. And it’s like, maybe we could have done without Gio and Betty dancing, what if they were involved in the paintball war? What if [the plot] was a little more of a piece and the stories all blended in more?”

[Why, oh why, could they not have done that? It would have been perfect!]

Finally, Horta talks a bit about stunt-casting. “I will take a pledge: I will never ever hire Paris Hilton for as long as I am associated with this show, which I believe will be ’til the end. There will be no Paris Hilton.”

Read your lips, eh Silvio? Never say never…

Source: The Watcher
Image: Newscom