Mark Indelicato Gets Campy In Spooky New Series, “Dead Of Summer”

The "Ugly Betty" star discusses playing gay in the new Freeform thriller.
From: NewNowNext

Mark Indelicato—best known as gay teen Justin Suarez on Ugly Betty—is back on TV this week on Freeform’s new horror series, Dead of Summer, a tribute to the slasher films of the 1980s.

We caught up with Indelicato to talk about Dead of Summer, Ugly Betty, and more.

Can you tell us about Blair, your character in Dead of Summer?

Blair is the quintessential cisgender gay male on the show. He’s the gay best friend, and he’s also a camper returning as a counselor, so relationships with the other counselors have been forged already. He also has his best friend sidekick, Cricket (Amber Coney).

 Did you play Blair differently since he’s an out teenager in the ’80s?

Having a gay character represented and out and proud is interesting because in 1989 you had the height of the AIDS crisis. His sexuality is not harped on; he’s just Blair and everyone knows that. I appreciated that—his sexuality is not the defining factor.

Aside from their sexuality, are Blair and Justin from Ugly Betty similar?

Blair is much more comfortable and self-aware than Justin was, in part because of the age difference. Playing Justin on Ugly Betty, our coming out process was happening at the same time, and it could have been overwhelming, but we really helped each other. My coming out was so seamless, my family knew, it was the same thing as Justin. Our coming out experiences were intertwined.

Blair is the most well-adjusted of all the counselors. I’m closer to Blair, personally, than I was to Justin at the time.

As a young gay man, how did you feel when you heard about the shooting in Orlando?

I was devastated. Orlando was an explicit example of the war being waged on queer bodies in America and around the world. There are still so many attacks, micro and macro, that are being made against the LGBT community—this is another example of that.

There is so much left to do in the collective community in the United States. Straight white bodies are still getting precedent… When you’re a queer person of color your life is threatened every day. We cant sit silent. We have to continue to fight for the rights that are ours and engage allies to use their power to end this.

Dead of Summer premieres June 28 at 9/8c on Freeform.