HOTEL COCAINE: Danny Pino Explores the Complexities of Portraying Roman Compte

Actors frequently play characters based on/inspired by real people, but for HOTEL COCAINE star Danny Pino, his character Roman Compte hit even closer to home: Roman is inspired by the father of Pino’s former MAYANS M.C. co-star/friend Maurice Compte.

In MGM+’s HOTEL COCAINE, Roman is the general manager of The Mutiny Hotel, trying to juggle his conflicting responsibilities to his family (including his brother, Nestor, who is a notorious cocaine supplier), the DEA (who are threatening Roman’s daughter), and the hotel itself (which is a hotspot for the rich, famous, and powerful). 

Though showrunner Chris Brancato and the writers created much of the season as an original story versus a straight-up autobiography, portraying a real person when you know their child “adds a level of complexity,” Pino acknowledges to Give Me My Remote. “But, also, I think, [adds] a level of depth. You [normally] don’t have access, oftentimes, to people who knew the character you’re playing, much less their father. And so there was an initial conversation that Maurice and I had about Roman and who he was—there were all these anecdotes, these memories that Maurice would so generously share with me about his father.” 

“I also knew that Chris Brancato was going to take Roman’s [real] story as a foundation, as a base, and then build sort of fictionally from there, fictionalize a lot of what we see in the show,” he continues. “But I think we preserved the nucleus of who Roman was, certainly who Roman was to Maurice, and that was important to me. And so that was one of the first conversations I actually had, was with his son. It was perhaps the most important conversation I had about Roman. Obviously, I had dozens and dozens and dozens of conversations about this character, this person. And I think that [conversation with Maurice] added to the layer of Roman who is the family man, who will do anything that he needs to do to protect his family…that hierarchy of importance was reinforced through Maurice.”

Try as Roman might, it’s been hard to actually protect his daughter, Valeria (Corina Bradley): The last episode ended with her accidentally caught up in the middle of an ambush-turned-shootout. (The teen was safe, but shaken.)

“The irony doesn’t escape him,” Pino acknowledges. “The irony being that he’s taking all of these steps to protect his daughter—engaging in the violence that he has to engage in…That awakens a part of him that he thought was dead, this sort of military, soldier, incredibly well-trained, part-sniper, part-hand-to-hand combat, which we start to see. We start to see that element of who this modest and humble general manager of the Mutiny is. And maybe what’s lying under the surface.”

“So the irony is, in trying to protect his family, he’s actually invited all of this in,” he continues. “Not only to his own life, and potentially exposing who he, really, is, but also ensnaring his daughter and his girlfriend, and everything that he finds important—potentially even the Mutiny itself.”

But in the mayhem, Pino notes he doesn’t think Roman has given thought to whether he’s still on the right side or if this has shifted things. “I don’t think he really thinks about whether he’s a good guy or bad guy,” Pino says with a laugh. “I think he’s so in survival mode [right now]. He’s using that reptilian part of his brain, you know, that fight or flight [instinct].” 

The show, however, has allowed for a few beats to acknowledge the decisions Roman is making. “Chris Brancato added a beautiful moment in episode 4, that Fernando Rovzar directed, where Roman walks out of the Christmas shop and he’s bought these Christmas lights that…Marisol has been begging him for,” Pino points out. “And there’s this one moment where he looks back into the storefront and there’s a sign that says, ‘Have you been naughty or nice?’ That’s the one reflective [beat]. There are moments, I think, of reflection throughout, but I don’t think he spends a lot of time doing that. [Right now,] he’s trying to stay one or two moves ahead on the chessboard.”

HOTEL COCAINE, Sundays, MGM+

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest  TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page or our Instagram.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.