Indelicato gives bite to 'Betty'

Confident actor: Mark Indelicato, 12, plays the title character's fashion-obsessed nephew,Justin, on Ugly Betty. "As you can see, I'm not the typical Latino boy," he says.

Jazzed Justin: Justin Suarez (Mark Indelicato) is thrilled that his Aunt Betty (America Ferrera) works at a fashion magazine. Says Indelicato, "Fashion means a lot."

By William Keck, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — At just 12 years old, Ugly Betty's Mark Indelicato has been bedazzling fans as Betty's fantabulous nephew, Justin Suarez.
Castmate Eric Mabius, who plays Betty's boss, Daniel, calls his young co-star "a force of nature, a consummate entertainer. That character is him. But he's even more excited in person."

Oh, yes, he is.

On a recent outing to his favorite hangout — The Grove, an upscale outdoor mall — Mark shows the same enthusiasm Justin displayed on last week's episode when he accompanied his Aunt Betty to Fashion Week.

"I practically live here! This is like my heaven!" he says. Making a beeline for the Apple computer store, the young song-and-dance man checks out the latest upgrades for the video iPod his parents bought him for Christmas.

The tech-savvy kid enjoys surfing the Internet but steers clear of Betty message boards, where fans have been known to post cruel comments about his over-the-top portrayal of TV's most atypical male child. Preferring not to elaborate on the negative, he says, "The controversial comments, all from adults, are pretty discouraging."

Mabius is impressed with how Mark has handled his high-profile Hollywood arrival, noting, "Regardless of who he becomes as an adult, he's very self-assured."

That confidence radiates on screen, making Mark an integral component of the ABC hit (Thursdays, 8 p.m. ET/PT), which is this season's third-most-watched new series (behind Heroes and Shark). It averages 12.3 million viewers and has dramatically improved the network's performance in its time slot.

The show also has collected honors from the Golden Globes, Family Television Awards and the Satellite Awards, and it will vie for the top TV comedy title at the NAACP Image Awards and GLAAD Awards, which recognizes positive portrayals of gay and lesbian characters.

A 'sweet innocence'

Justin's sexuality has never been addressed on the show, but Betty creator Silvio Horta, who is gay and came out to his Cuban-American family at age 19, says the character will experience "the journey" as he matures. "I see myself in him," Horta says. "Growing up, I certainly felt like an outsider at times. But there's this sweet innocence in Justin that sees the positive."

A Pennsylvania native, Mark began singing songs from The Little Mermaid at age 3. He calls acting and singing "my passions."

He was dancing in his school musical, 45 Minutes to Broadway, when his manager jumped on a New York casting call for "not a buff typical Latino boy," Mark recalls. "And as you can see, I'm not the typical Latino boy."

Certainly not. Mark is a quarter Puerto Rican, 75% Italian and 100% showman, with musical preferences ranging from pop to alternative to musical theater.

"Mark nails the character — being able to play up the flamboyance," Horta says.

Adds America Ferrera, who plays Betty: "He loves what he does — like a little kid playing."

Ferrera says she, Mark and Ana Ortiz, who plays Justin's mother, Hilda, "sit around the set singing musicals. We're recently obsessed with Dreamgirls, and last week we were singing Hairspray."

Mark will sing Hairspray's breakout song, Good Morning, Baltimore, on the Feb. 15 episode when Justin gets trapped with his parents in a subway car and breaks into song to entertain the passengers.

"It's hilarious," Mark promises. "We did this whole choreography with '60s music."

Tonight's episode finds Justin trying out for his school's color guard team and getting beaten up after another kid says disparaging things about his mom.

Mark avoids such altercations by taking part in an online charter school. "I don't have to wake up every day and go to regular school," says the seventh-grader, who has still managed to make friends in Los Angeles.

He clicked with a girl in the apartment complex where he and his mother, Lynn, are living. His father, beverage salesman Mark Sr., will join the family in March and begin interviewing for jobs and searching for a family home. Accompanying his father on the cross-country journey will be Mark's pet bird, a peach-fronted conure named Bella.

Meanwhile, as the season progresses, Justin will be dealing with the possibility of his mother reuniting with his father, Santos. The macho dad has so far had trouble accepting Justin, but Horta says the relationship will evolve.

"There's a great emotional story line to play there," he says.

Passing the mall's cinemas, Mark says the actors who play his TV mom and grandfather have become his movie buddies. Last year, he and Tony Plana (grandfather Ignacio) watched Marie Antoinette, while Mark and Ortiz took in a screening of The Devil Wears Prada.

He cites Queen Latifah as his personal acting muse "because she has the endorsement (deal) with Cover Girl. I wouldn't want to endorse Cover Girl, but maybe something else to get all that free stuff."

Though not yet a teen, Mark is already using skin-care products and has visited the mall's Kiehl's store. "Kiehl's is great," he says. "And my mom and I have begun using a (product) called Clarins."

Sporting Prada sunglasses, Mark says his keen knowledge of fashion predated his Betty casting.

"Of course, you know what Prada is," he explains. "Maybe I didn't know Valentino and Michael Kors, but I knew Coach, Gucci, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana. Fashion means a lot. The way you look is the way people judge you. I don't care what people say, that's the way people are."

Expensive tastes all around

While his TV alter ego prefers bright colors that "pop," Mark is more comfortable in black T-shirts he picks up at teen-friendly stores such as Gap and Quicksilver.

But the week before the Golden Globes, he took full advantage of the swag suites, which allow celebs to load up on high-end freebies.

Mom Lynn, trailing behind her son as he enters Nordstrom, takes partial blame for her son's fashion obsessions. "It's not that I'm a materialistic individual …" she prefaces. Says Mark, finishing his mother's sentence and inspiring them both to laugh, "It's just that we have expensive taste."

Mark, who began selecting his own wardrobe in the third grade, recently cleared out his father's closet and gave him a fashion makeover. Though Mark, a fan of Bravo's Project Runway, says that "I go anywhere I want and buy what I like," his mother says that's not so. She says she carefully monitors her shopaholic son's spending. "We give him a little allowance each episode, because you never know in this business where you're going to be day to day," she says. "It's very easy to spend, but he's really learning the value of money."

Indeed.

Coming upon Nordstrom's shoe department, he races over to a pair of pricey pumps he discouraged his mother from wearing to last month's Screen Actors Guild awards. "These are the Jimmy Choo shoes that are like $1,000," Mark enthuses, sounding identical to his character.

Flipping them over, he sees they are a steal at only $650. "Still," he pauses, "that's pretty expensive."