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The classic Nickelodeon animated series Rugrats will get a makeover for its upcoming Paramount+ reboot with the supporting character Betty DeVille rewritten to be gay.
The mother of the twins Phil and Lil DeVille was an unabashed feminist on the original series and regularly sported a female symbol on her sweatshirts.
Replacing the original voice actress Kath Soucie will be Parks And Recreation actor Natalie Morales, 36, according to the AV Club.
New look: Natalie Morales will be voicing a new openly gay version of Betty DeVille (center) on Paramount+’s reboot of Rugrats, according to the AV Club; still from the Rugrats reboot
Morales, who uses both she/her and they/them pronouns, said in a statement that she is excited to be part of the new series and thinks that ‘anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia,’ referring to the LGBTQ community.
The actor said she was excited to provide more queer representation on the reboot of a beloved series.
‘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,’ Natalie continued.
Natalie also seemed to address complaints from some viewers that the addition of queer characters is more lip service than meaningful representation.
No surprise: Morales, said she’s excited to be part of the new series and thinks that ‘anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia’; seen in 2019 in LA
Representation: ‘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,’ Natalie continued; still from Rugrats
‘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,’ Morales said.
In addition to being open about having a female ex, the updated version of Betty will own a café called Betty’s Beans and will be a major football fanatic.
A new still from the upcoming series shows her with a Gemini symbol replacing her sweatshirts female symbol, though its unclear if the design will vary from episode to episode.
Morales is best known for her recurring role on NBC’s Parks And Recreation, but she also had a main cast role on the first season of USA’s White Collar and she starred in the ABC Family series The Middleman.
TV star: Morales is known for her role on NBC’s Parks And Recreation, but she also had a main cast role on the first season of USA’s White Collar and on ABC Family’s The Middleman; seen in 2019 on Late Night With Seth Meyers
Coming out: Morales recounted starting a relationship with an openly bisexual girl in a 2017 essay in which she came out as queer; seen Wednesday in Beverly Hills
In 2017, Morales came out as queer in a post published on Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls site.
Morales’ essay described being infatuated with another girl at her Catholic grade school, though she moved on to a public school for high school.
‘One day, during a rehearsal, she and I were sitting in the back of the nearly empty auditorium eating some candy and I told her I liked her,’ she wrote.
Her friend mulled over her feelings before admitting she also had feelings for Morales.
‘I was elated. We kissed. It was magic. It was also, as I said it had to be, a big secret.’
Out of the picture: In the original, Betty was married to Howard DeVille (R), who reportedly does not appear in the Paramount+ reboot
Still there: Her new Rugrats character Betty was previously voiced by Kath Soucie, though she’ll still be intimately involved with the reboot as she also voices Betty’s twins Phil and Lil DeVille; still from Rugrats
Morales didn’t offer a specific identification but simply referred to herself as ‘queer.’
‘What queer means to me is just simply that I’m not straight. That’s all,’ Natalie wrote. ‘It’s not scary, even though that word used to be really, really scary to me.’
Morales’ new Rugrats character Betty was previously voiced by Kath Soucie, though she will still be intimately involved with the reboot as she also voices Betty’s twins Phil and Lil DeVille.
In the original, Betty was married to Howard DeVille, who reportedly does not appear in the Paramount+ reboot.
So far, it’s unclear if Betty has ended her marriage and come out as gay in the new version, or if her character was completely revised to be a gay woman.
Betty has long been bandied about as a queer-coded character on the original series, so her rewrite to be openly gay isn’t necessarily a shock to many fans.
One fan tweeted that they were ‘loving’ the new version of Betty, adding, ‘In the original, I knew she was gay but was closeted but now she is openly gay!’
Another person joked: ‘I was today years old when I learned that Betty from Rugrats wasn’t always gay.’
A few others complained that the change was a surrender to ‘wokeness.’
‘Making Betty gay on Rugrats is just performative wokeness and I’m so tired,’ read one critical tweet. ‘It was already subversive to have a woman who was not traditionally feminine married to more effeminate male/SAHD [stay at home dad]. Erasing this is not nearly as progressive as making a new openly gay character would be.’
The new series premieres Thursday, May 27 on the Paramount+ streaming service.
Out now: The new series premieres Thursday, May 27 on the Paramount+ streaming service
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