How Becki Newton Found Success By Refusing To Play Perfect Women

A decade after Ugly Betty put her on the map, the 36-year-old actor is back doing what she does best on Weird Loners: making unlikable characters lovable.

Fox

"It's not a basic human right to be on a hit television show," said Becki Newton, former star of ABC's hit series Ugly Betty, followed by two more network comedies that were quickly canceled. "Most shows aren't hits. So I'm aware I've already experienced both extremes and now I'm getting to experience everything else in between."

At the lowest end of Newton's professional career sits Love Bites, an NBC comedy created by Cindy Chupack (Sex and the City) that was derailed by real-life pregnancies (Newton's), contract woes (Jordana Spiro's), and endless retooling (the network's) before debuting in June 2011 to less than 3 million viewers (a series high).

At the other end sits Ugly Betty, a full-fledged cultural phenomenon that premiered to 16 million viewers in 2006. Over the course of its four seasons, the series drew big-name guest stars (like Lindsay Lohan, Victoria Beckham, Salma Hayek) and won three of the 19 Emmys for which it was nominated. Newton played Mode magazine's fast-talking, slow-thinking receptionist Amanda Tanen, who — along with Michael Urie's Marc St. James — became a fan favorite on the Silvio Horta-created dramedy, thanks to the charming aloofness and endless effervescence she brought to the campy show.

"I started out playing the nastiest, sluttiest, most inebriated person on TV and I loved it," Newton told BuzzFeed News of her breakthrough role, as she leaned back in her chair at Le Pain Quotidien in Los Angeles. "The messiness of someone makes them more real to me. It's not how nice and sweet they are, it's how much they fumble."

ABC, via deeperthantherabbithole.tumblr.com

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