Armando at least engages, if awkwardly, asking about his girlfriend and wondering aloud when he decided he was gay.
When the episode cuts to 10 weeks later, Victor and Isabel still haven’t talked about it.
But part of our job on this show was to tell a different coming out story than, say, Simon had in the film” — in which Simon’s parents pretty much immediately understand and accept him.
Ortiz even played that role to perfection on ABC’s beloved telenovela “Ugly Betty” as Hilda Suarez, who fiercely protected her young gay son Justin .
Like, ‘How could you raise a gay son? If it was me, I wouldn’t let them be gay.’ I’ve heard that quite a bit from people in my community: ‘Well, just, no — tell him he can’t be gay.
She relays how her late cousin Freddy was devoted to her paternal grandmother Ramona, despite the fact that for a long time Ramona could not accept that Freddy was gay.
The way in for me really was just thinking about Freddy and Ramona and how much we all loved her, despite those flaws — how human she was.
“They are in some ways a discussion of sexuality, and sexuality is a little bit more of an adult topic,” he continues.
Once Adrian does learn that Victor is gay, he accepts it without a second thought, which spurs Isabel to confront the biggest impediment between her and Victor: her lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church.
“When he’s agreeing with her reluctance about Victor’s coming out, she doesn’t want to hear it,” says Tanen.
Ortiz loved the scene, but she says the director had to keep reminding her to dial back her reaction.
“We want the show to feel, at its core, inspirational and uplifting,” he says.
“It’s a little bit easier for me now to dialogue with someone in my family who has those views,” she says.
But when it’s your family, when it’s people you love… I’m much more able to have these conversations calmly.