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Ten minutes with Michael Urie
By: Victoria Murden
Michael Urie with co-star Vanessa Williams
Michael Urie with co-star Vanessa Williams
Pride Life Interviews Michael Urie, star of hit sitcom Ugly Betty and reticent gay icon
"We all wear masks in our lives, and i think Ugly Betty is all about masks"
Michael Urie hasn’t looked back since landing his greatest role yet as the disarmingly evil assistant on camp comedy Ugly Betty. But despite his fame he remains refreshingly down-to-earth, and returns to his beloved theatrical roots regularly to perform and direct. Urie is less than forthcoming about his own sexuality, but content to wax lyrical about his openly gay character Marc, surviving Hollywood and all things Betty…
On the risk of being gay-typecast in America…
“Certainly it’s an issue. Things are changing. There are more and more gay parts and there are more and more people who are open to it that are watching who don’t care anymore and can suspend their disbelief. As long as I’m acting that’s great. They say once you get a certain amount of exposure the work comes to you and that’s sort of true but it’s the same job. I was offered to play Carmen Electra’s gay dresser and I was like, ‘Why would I do that? You want me because there is something recognisable about me, and you’re hoping that people who watch Ugly Betty will think, ‘Oh I want to go see that’.”
On the universality of Ugly Betty…
“We all wear masks in our lives and I think Ugly Betty is all about masks and how everyone wears them and takes them off. I think that everyone in the show is a fish out of water and Betty is the ultimate fish out of water; an ugly girl from Queens working at a fashion magazine in Manhattan. We’ve all been Ugly Betty.”
On being a self-confessed “theatre rat”...
“I used to live in New York and then I moved out to LA for Ugly Betty but last time I went to New York I took a little vacation for six days and I saw seven shows. I can’t get enough. I just love it. Shit movies are annoying because people have spent a lot of money on them but a shit play – people are working really hard. I’ve been in shit plays so I get it.”
On never straying too far from home…
“I have never been across the pond before. Well, because I grew up in Texas and we just never travelled far and then I went to school and after that… This is the first time I’ve had time for a real vacation and wasn’t working or trying to get work. It never made sense for me to spend money when I didn’t really have it or when I needed to get it so I just never really had the chance [to travel] until now.”
On that business they call show business…
“Well, in LA, it’s all about show business. It’s about pretending. It’s about pretending you know something or someone when you don’t and I think it was Debbie Reynolds or someone who said, ‘Hollywood is the only town where they can kill you with encouragement.’ It’s interesting because the difference between New York and LA is that in New York, the further you get, the nicer people are to you because you’ve earned their respect. In LA it’s the other way round. I walked out of every audition feeling great, thinking, ‘Oh that went well. They really liked me.’ Then the further you get, you meet the producers and then you go in and audition for the studio executives and then the network executives and they just get crueler and crueler and colder and colder. It’s very nasty.”
The new series of Ugly Betty airs Tuesday’s at 21:00 on E4
Catch-up online at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ugly-betty/4od
