Who Is The Star In The Hotels.com 'Interrogation' Commercial?
In the Hotels.com series of Captain Obvious commercials, our intrepid captain makes readily apparent statements. Simple premise, no? Well, the Captain Obvious commercials have been getting more elaborate, more heightened for a while. The latest starts in what looks like a police interrogation. A woman is grilling a perp for details. "Where is it?!" she demands. We pull out, and realize it's actually a couple arguing about the surprise vacation the man has planned. "She doesn't like surprises," chimes in a less-than-helpful Captain Obvious. Well, duh.
As part of the general heightening of the Captain Obvious commercials, this one roped in some additional star power. Celebrity endorsement has always been a big business in advertising. Half of the Apatow family shills for Jergens, and 3/5 of *NSYNC cameoed for Progressive. As far as this commercial goes, the interrogator in the couple may look familiar to comedy fans: It's Stephanie Beatriz, best known for playing hard-ass cop Rosa Diaz on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."
Stephanie Beatriz has lots of experience being intimidating
Stephanie Beatriz has played many a tough chick on TV. She's played Rosa Diaz for all eight seasons of cop comedy "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," which is ending this year. Rosa is known for her tough exterior, which only melts in the presence of puppies and her family. Beatriz's real life helped inform the character, as she came out as bisexual in real life around the same time that her character did. Rosa's family had a poor reaction to the news, but her father (played by Danny Trejo) eventually came around.
Beyond the nine-nine, Beatriz also scared people as Gloria's unhinged sister Sonia on "Modern Family." Gloria and Sonia's beef stems from the withholding nature of their father, as the two felt his approval was a finite resource over which to compete. They eventually resolved many of their conflicts.
On the opposite side of the toughie-cutie spectrum, Beatriz played Carla in the Lin Manuel Miranda musical "In the Heights." Carla is the co-worker and life partner of salon owner Daniela ("RENT" on Broadway's Daphne Rubin-Vega). Carla is sweet and ditzy, especially compared to Beatriz's other characters. A big difference between Carla on Broadway and in the film is that she and Daniela are girlfriends in the film, whereas they were just coworkers in the stage version.