Alec Mapa: America’s Gaysian Sweetheart
You know him as the always-catty Suzuki St. Pierre, reporter for fictional Fashion TV on Ugly Betty. Yet, you’ve probably said to yourself, “I’ve seen him before…but I can’t quite place it.” That’s because the actor who plays St. Pierre, Alec Mapa, is one very busy man.
He’s played a recurring role on Desperate Housewives. He’s had guest stints in everything from Rosanne to NYPD Blue to Alias, to hundreds of other appearances. He’s a Broadway stage actor, he wrote and starred in a one-man show, “I remember Mapa”, and he was even in the video for REM’s “Losing My Religion”: Mapa was actually the man tied to a tree with an arrow through his heart. (How cool is that to know?)
He has a new solo show, “America’s Gaysian Sweetheart,” going onstage at Joe’s Pub in New York on June 28 and 29
Mapa’s latest big thing, besides of course, being an Ugly Betty regular, is a role in Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Alec plays Claude, a hairdresser who teaches and helps Sandler’s character, Zohan (an Israeli commando who fakes his own death) pursue his dream: become a hairstylist in New York.
Mapa played Claude “straight” (no, not THAT kind of straight!). He says, “The whole movie had such colorful, outsized characters to begin with and I was acting opposite Adam, so my goal was to get laughs by not playing for laughs. The visual jokes in the script were so bananas that all I had to do was react.”
Alec was a classmate of Adam Sandler at New York University. “Adam and I were in the same class as Molly Shannon (’Saturday Night Live’,'Evan Almighty’). We were all friendly because none of us ever got cast in any of the plays put on by the University. We all started doing our own comedy routines in clubs and theaters. Being proactive was what moved us forward. Adam’s a bit on the shy side, but he’s extremely loyal. The entire crew on ‘Zohan’ had all worked on tons of movies with Adam before, so I felt like I had walked in on a family reunion that was already underway.”
About Ugly Betty’s move to New York, Mapa says, “I’m thrilled about the double [airline] miles! I’m on the road half the year, so traveling to New York is a piece of cake. I lived there for seven years, so each trip back feels like a homecoming. I’m just sad for the 300 crew members who lost jobs here (in LA). First class rocks. A single glass of champagne at 30,000 feet gets me drunk faster than anything.”
If you will remember, in season 1, Ugly Betty had multiple reporters on its Fashion TV segments. In season 2, they gave the role solely to Mapa, and I think we’re all happy they did!
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
Umage: Newscom
Tags: adam sandler, alec mapa, Movies, Television, Ugly Betty, you dont mess with the zohan, zohanRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Guest Stars, Movies
1 opinion for Alec Mapa: America’s Gaysian Sweetheart
Elizabeth
Jun 12, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I like Suzuki, and I’ve liked Mapa since his “Ugly Betty” podcast appearance.
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