Stephanie Beatriz got 99 problems but Brooklyn ain’t one! After taking the winter off, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back with its spring premiere tonight (8:30pm ET on FOX).
Stephanie Beatriz’s Detective Rosa is breaking character in the big return, going undercover, and told us everything goes just as planned, saying “Oh no. It’s everything. It’s so smooth, it’s like butter. It’s so smooth. There’s no situational comedy at all.” A little snark? We wouldn’t have it any other way!
Five Alive
The BK99 crew is back to finish the show’s fifth season, and Stephanie told us she was glad to get back on set, “The story lines this season in particular were really really fun.” Fun was the theme of this Cocktail Conversation! “Just like a lot of good funny episodes. What you’ve come to expect from your friends at Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Shooting the end of the fifth season was fantastic. It was such a joyful experience, all of us were having such a great time.”
“The squad is sort of preoccupied with getting Seamus Murphy who’s threatened Kevin’s life, getting something on him so Rosa gets to go undercover.” It’s a hilarious way to get Det. Rosa in a salon and use shallow small talk to get a stylist to give up some deets. Not her strong suit. Maybe she just needs more practice, “Which she hasn’t really done too much of in five seasons surprisingly. This is a real deep, deep undercover situation.”
Meanwhile Jake, played by Andy Samberg, is a makeshift security guard for a friend’s makeshift safe house. Nothing could go wrong, right? “I mean, anytime Jake is involved something’s gonna go awry.” And he’s again getting involved with his nemesis, Kevin, Capt. Holt’s husband. “It’s always really fun to see Jake and Capt. Holt’s husband Kevin sort of come at each other cuz they’re so different. It’s gonna be a really great episode though, I’m excited for that storyline to sort of evolve, resolve.”
Silver Lake Life
Despite being five years in, Stephanie is still living life mostly under the radar in the hipster LA suburb of Silver Lake. “I have a very regular life in LA. It’s great. I walk around my cool Silver Lake neighborhood. The coolest thing definately has been getting recognized in my sort of like snobby hipster neighborhood.”
While most stars try to blend in, getting recognized meant something very special for Steph, So if someone is coming up to you in the Whole Foods in Silver Lake, then like you know like you’re show’s doing pretty good. So that was a fun moment.”
So now you know, if you need to pick up a snack while cruising through Silver Lake, go to Whole Foods! “That was a real ‘oh wow this show is like, we’re doing something.'”
Wait.. You’re WHO?!?
Stephanie thinKs she’d be recognized more often if she wasn’t so completely opposite of her character. “It’s always really fun to meet fans on the street because I sound so different from Rosa in real life because I look different. They always get really confused.”
When you run into her, don’t be embarrassed, she’s totally fine with it. “Imagine watching watching a show for four or five seasons and you feel like you really know these characters, kinda like they’re your friends, you own them a little bit, right?”
But that look of confusion on a fan’s face brings a smile to hers, “And then you meet the person who plays the character and they’re nothing like the person that you knew. It can be very jarring for them but it’s really joyful for me to watch cuz it’s really fun.”
Social Life
While the FaceTwitaChatGram-verse is the domain of trolls and clickbait, Stephanie is feelin’ the love! “I mean it’s been amazing. It’s such a gift. I know social media is such a pain sometimes and can be really awful. But really it can also be incredible.”
Incredible? Really?
“One of the gifts of social has been the people that find the show reach out to us and talk about how much they love it, how much they identify with it, how they see themselves reflected back in it. That has been a true amazing thing.” Maybe there’s hope we can get her to follow us on Instagram!
Mess Around
Before we finished our cocktails and closed our tab, we had to ask, who’s the Hottest of Hot Messes on the show: Kevin or Jake? Steph didn’t hesitate. “Jake. Always Jake. Anyime you say hot mess in regards to our show, follow it up with Jake Peralta. He’s a hot buttered mess!”
The Critic’s Cocktail Recommendation
A Cold glass of Brooklyn Brewery Lager. And if you can down 99 of ’em? Good for you and get on the liver transplant list now!
Cheers!
Critic's Cocktail 