Ana Ortiz and Mark Indelicato Cover March 2010

By Jason Feinberg

Tuesday, 02 February 2010 20:43

Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz, Getting Ready for the Next Step

Photography By David Needleman

/ Hair By Jake Dingler for ArtistsByTimothyPriano.com /

Makeup and Styling By Kate Best

In September 2006, a new show debuted on ABC based on a quirky, naïve, fashion-deficient woman who lands a job at a high-end fashion magazine in New York City. Immediately, Ugly Betty became a household name that attracted some of the industry’s biggest names to fill leading roles as well as make guest appearances. As the show now winds down after four seasons, The Boulevard was not only able to spend a little time on location sets, but also had the opportunity to interview some of the cast members.
When I first met Ana Ortiz, I think I must have been expecting Hilda Suarez, Betty’s lively older sister, to walk through the door, because, as it happened, I had opened the door for Ana, let her walk right past me and I didn’t introduce myself. “First of all, I don’t really get recognized that often,” Ana shrugs it off. “I do hang out with Mark [Indelicato] a lot and he’s mobbed. They’ll sort of turn and look at me and be like, ‘Hi! Oh! Oh! Oh, my goodness!’ And then as soon as I start speaking they’ll be like, ‘Oh, you don’t sound like Hilda; you don’t have the accent.’”
Ana had initially auditioned for the part of Betty when the only character written was Betty. Then she was called to audition for Hilda. Ana jumped at the opportunity to work with executive producer Salma Hayek. Originally, Hilda was written to be married, shopping for minivans and not living with Betty. It was Ortiz who put the sexier Latina cha cha spin on the role, which paid off and allowed the character to take a much different direction.
Mark Indelicato plays Hilda’s son Justin. On this day, they were more like brother and sister then a mother-and-son team. Ana relates a story about being the first person to arrive at the show’s first reading and looking for one of the producers. Instead, Mark and his mom walked in. Ana said she wanted to connect with Mark right away, “’cause in this world you have five minutes to become mother and son and make it convincing … I immediately did what I always do and bombarded him with, ‘Hey what’s up? I’m Ana, I’m going to be playing your mom.’” Ana also connected with her TV son’s mom right from the start, “His mother comes from a gigantic Italian family and I come from a giant Puerto Rican family and it’s sort of the same tribe. We spoke the same language right away and it was really easy.”
Ana Ortiz’ career debut was the theater production of Dangerous Liaisons. Eventually she would join the famed LAByrinth Theater Company in New York and one day be directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. “He is amazing! He is as brilliant as he is as an actor. He brings that same passion and dedication to his directing and it’s one of the best experiences I’ve had on stage. He never relented or let you have a false moment. He watched every performance, every rehearsal; you never got away with anything. He is as hard on the actors as he is on himself. It was a real honor and a real learning experience. I felt like I had been through the fire and came out the other end ready for everything. In this business you have so much rejection and so much heartache and I felt so prepped and pumped up. It’s not a bad name to drop in an audition, either.”
For Ana, her love for both television and theater seem to pull her in opposite directions. “You can’t beat television for the sort of immediacy of it and the paycheck,” she laughs, “and the perks that come along with being on a show on the air that becomes a hit. I’ve never been able to live and grow with a character this long, so that’s a huge advantage.” A TV show also gives you the advantage of new friends and family, and all the memories that go along with that. About her colleague, America Ferrera, Ana finds it hard to talk without laughing. “Working with America, she cracks up so much on set and … once she starts cracking up, Mark starts cracking up, I start cracking up, and it’s over – we need to take a break because we get those giggle attacks. It’s a mess!”
In theater, says Ana, “you get to do things they’d never cast you for in TV. TV is so … they really stereotype, but definitely in theater you have that challenge of making it intimate when there’s 400 people watching you or even if there’s 40 people watching you.”
Now that Ugly Betty is coming to an end, Ana finds the world opening for her once more. I asked if she thought there could be a spinoff featuring Hilda and Justin. “I really couldn’t see me playing Hilda without the rest of my family. I think the characters have run their course. I’m auditioning for a play that’s going to be at the Goodman this summer. I’m doing play readings now and will have a lot more time to do that. I’m really lucky that we are coming off a show that people really love.”
When not spending time at work, Ana spends it with her husband, musician Noah Lebenzon, and daughter Paloma. She and Noah met “on a set up, actually,” and before the night was over, Ana was thinking, “Heyyy, this is great!” Three years later, she says, “It’s been the best partnership of my life. I couldn’t ask for a better man and a better friend and a better dad. I’m really, really lucky.”
Their daughter was two days old before Ana and Noah finally settled on a name. “I was loving the name Ramona which was my dad’s mom’s name. It was really between Ramona and Paloma. He sort of made the final call, thank God, because I never would have been able to. She’d still be Baby Girl.” Palmona is such an uncommon name I asked Ana what names didn’t make the cut. “Let’s see, it was Ramona, Allegra – but it sounded too much like a pharmaceutical, like an allergy medicine,” she laughed. “I loved the name India for a while. The names kept changing.”
In what spare time Ana has, she has always found a way to help others. She has been involved with Tell a Gal P.A.L., which empowers survivors of domestic violence by sharing their very difficult experiences with other survivors. More recently, she has worked with Voto Latino, which helps Latinos recognize their voting power.
Today, a somber tone is cast over Ana and her colleagues as they try to absorb the shock that their time together has an expiration date. Ugly Betty’s last episode is scheduled for April 2010. The past four years have been great and they have had an amazing run – Ana even received the 2007 ALMA award for best supporting actress. “There is sort of a fire there now in our bellies, now that we know that this has an end. We really want to go out with a bang.” For the past four years, she has been Hilda Suarez and as Ana begins the process of retiring Hilda, she will undoubtedly be preparing for whatever is the next step.