Phil and Lil’s mom Betty DeVille in Rugrats will be an openly gay woman in the show's Paramount+ revival series! Sure, in the original series she was married to Howard, but Betty has low-key always been a queer icon. And now it's canon! This time, instead of her sweater having the “female” symbol, Betty’s donning a Gemini sweater.
Actor Natalie Morales, who voices Betty in the new series and who happens to be queer herself, revealed the news to The A.V. Club.
In an exclusive statement to The A.V. Club, Morales says she’s very excited to join part of Rugrats by voicing Betty and that she thinks “anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia.” She also shares what it means to revive the character in a way that brings queer representation to such a nostalgic show. “Betty is a single mom with her own business who has twins and still has time to hang out with her friends and her community, and I think it’s just so great because examples of living your life happily and healthily as an out queer person is just such a beacon for young queer people who may not have examples of that,” she explains. “And yeah, Betty is a fictional cartoon, but even cartoons were hugely influential for me as a kid and if I’d been watching Rugrats and seen Betty casually talking about her ex-girlfriend, I think at least a part of me would have felt like things might be okay in the future.”
Some things to know about this updated version of Betty: She loves football, owns a café called Betty’s Beans, and she cracks jokes about her ex-girlfriends. Make sure to check this new version of Betty when the show premieres May 27 on Paramount+.
Update (5/28) - “I was really excited,” Morales, who previously starred in The Middleman, Parks and Recreation, and Dead to Me continued. “Although I think anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia," she says, referring to the "LGBTQ" acronym.
“I was such a big, big fan of Nickelodeon when I was a kid. Rugrats, Doug, Ah! Real Monsters, Hey, Arnold, etc. Like, I watched all of it and Rugrats was a big one," she said. "Walking into Nickelodeon studios and auditioning for this role was such a big deal to me that I framed the ID sticker they gave me at the gate. Getting the part was incredibly joyous and I pinch myself every time I get to do it.”
For those who need a refresher course, Betty was married to Howard in the hit 1990s series, which was one of the most popular shows on Nickelodeon at its height. Its popularity led to subsequent films and successful video games.
Originally published: Wednesday, May 26, 2021.
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