Eric Mabius. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Eric Mabius couldn’t be happier watching his former Ugly Betty costars continue to shine since the show’s 2010 finale.
“I had so much fun working with everyone,” Mabius, 53, exclusively told Us Weekly of his Ugly Betty castmates while promoting his latest Hallmark Mystery movie, Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters. “I don’t have a bad word to say about any single one of them.”
The actor, who played Daniel Meade on the show, noted that the cast “used to get together more often” but “life happens.”
Ugly Betty premiered on ABC in 2006 and followed the not-so-stylish Betty (America Ferrera) after she landed a job at a prestigious fashion magazine in New York City. Betty evolves during her time at Mode magazine — and improves her boss, Daniel’s (Mabius) life along the way — before becoming an editor herself.
Although the cast of Ugly Betty has gone their separate ways, Mabius told Us that his manager still represents Ana Ortiz, who played Hilda Suarez, and Vanessa Williams, who portrayed Wilhelmina Slater, after he introduced them on the show.
“I mean, that’s how much I love my costars,” he said, sharing that he keeps “tabs on their careers as they evolve.”
Ferrera, 40, earned her first Oscar nomination for 2023’s Barbie more than a decade after Ugly Betty came to an end. That same year, Judith Light, who played Daniel’s mother, Claire Meade, on the sitcom, won her first Emmy Award for her role on Poker Face — and they aren’t the only ones who’ve had continued success.
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“I just enjoy [watching] them,” Mabius told Us of his former costars. “[Seeing] Becki Newton on The Lincoln Lawyer and reading about Michael Urie’s conquest on Broadway. It’s great.” (Newton played Amanda Tanen on Ugly Betty, while Urie portrayed Marc St. James.)
Mabius gushed: “It’s like hearing about your siblings doing really well in the world, and it’s a really great feeling.”
In addition to rooting for his former castmates, Mabius said he loves that new generations have discovered the show. “[There’s] a whole new generation [of] parents who are my age introducing their kids to [it] and having a whole other type of experience watching the show together,” he said. “It’s really neat.”
Looking back, Mabius revealed that the “highest compliment” the cast ever received was when someone told them their dying grandmother loved the show. Before she died, her family asked, “‘What are you gonna miss most when you’re gone?’ And she said, ‘I think what I’ll miss most is sitting around with you watching Ugly Betty,’” Mabius remembered.
He explained that sort of love for one of his projects is “something to strive for in life,” adding that it meant a lot to see the Ugly Betty team “put something into the world that made a difference and continues to make a difference to people’s lives and [for] people trying to struggle with their own identity and where they fit in the world and everyone [who is] feeling like a fish out of water and show them how making them a little bit more OK.”
While an Ugly Betty reunion is not in the works, Mabius told Us he’d “love all of them” to come and join his Hallmark Mystery family in a future installment of the Signed, Sealed, Delivered franchise.
Mabius, meanwhile, reconnected with his SSD family earlier this year to film two new movies for Hallmark. The 12th film overall, titled A Tale of Three Letters, premiered on Friday, July 12. The 13th installment, Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To the Moon and Back, will premiere on Hallmark Mystery in 2025.
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While the franchise was a big success for the network, it had been three years since the Postables — a.k.a Denver’s Dead Letter Office — teamed up for a new project. According to Mabius, their comeback had a lot to do with the fans.
“They really stuck by us and inspired homework I think to open up to more [films] and [convince creator] Martha [Williamson] to go back and look at the cannon and decide where she wanted to go to next,” he told Us. “She’s not gonna tell a story if she doesn’t have a real reason to.”
When it comes to what fans can expect for To the Moon and Back’s story line, Mabius confirmed that his character Oliver’s new role as a dad will be a big part of the journey. (Oliver’s wife, Shane, played by Kristin Booth, announced her pregnancy in A Tale of Three Letters).
Booth, 49, exclusively told Us that they are already done shooting the 2025 movie. “I can definitely hint toward continuing the theme of family and what a family is and what it looks like,” she teased.
She added: “I can guarantee you will not be disappointed with the next film. It’s really, really fun. And we get to see the Postables a little bit more out of the DLO again. I always love when they get out of their element.”
All the Signed, Sealed, Delivered movies are available to stream on Hallmark Movies Now.