“Great way to kick this off!” actor and musician Shalim Ortiz laughed when the first thing out of my mouth during our interview at the Decider offices last week was not a hard-hitting question, but rather a statement that there are simply so many hot people in his new show Grand Hotel, which premieres tonight on ABC. And it’s true. Watch for just a few minutes and you’ll realize the show about a fancy Miami hotel, its staff, and its guests is packed with nothing but total hotties, very much including Ortiz himself.

Then it was on to more important matters: discussing the news recently broken by Page Six, that executive producer Eva Longoria treated the cast to a yacht party the week they filmed the pilot in Miami. “It’s true!” Ortiz said. He and his co-stars couldn’t help but look around and think, “We’re in for a good adventure.”

A large part of that is due to Longoria as well. “The beautiful thing about it is no one has anything bad to say about Eva for a reason. She is an amazing boss. I’ve known her for years and she always makes sure you meet with her and you hang out with her at that level, a very intimate level, no matter who she works with.” Not only is she a producer on the series, but she’ll also have a recurring guest star role, and just in case that’s not enough, Ortiz said, “She directed Episode 3 which was an amazing experience. She was a great director, an actor’s director, as you can imagine. But at the same time very clear as to how she wants a scene, how she wants to tell the story.”

And there is a lot of story to tell here, as the show’s got 11(!) characters to play with. “It’s a big ensemble,” Ortiz stated. “And no one goes to waste. Everybody is a key figure. There are no fillers, there are no characters that don’t have a very specific key purpose in one of the plots.”

When I ask him about his own character, that of hotel manager Mateo, Ortiz said, “I think in a weird way we were all cast with some sort of element [similar to our] characters.” This was never more true than when they filmed the Grand Hotel pilot at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, and during spring break no less, an experience Ortiz can only describe as “extremely interesting.” While other cast members took full advantage of the partying vacationers, Ortiz kept it, well, rather “Mateo-y.”

“I kept a low profile,” Ortiz said of that crazy week. “I’m the dining guy. I’m the guy that loves a beautiful, mellow dinner. But you couldn’t have that at the Fontainebleau that week. It was mayhem.”

And since Ortiz is also a singer who has worked with Emilio Estefan and put out two albums over the course of his career, can we expect to see him singing on the show any time soon? “I don’t want to say a flat-out no,” he smiled, “But I would be surprised. I just don’t picture Mateo singing. I think it doesn’t go with his demeanor, with his nature.”

So what is his nature exactly? “He’s economical with his words,” Ortiz explained. “He doesn’t take too long to say what he needs to say. I love that not a single frame goes to waste with his storyline and the way he comes out of the shell.”

“He’s got a very interesting relationship with Santiago Mendoza, the owner of the hotel, Demian Bichir’s character. It’s evident from the trailer that there is going to be tension between them, because it is a show that relies a lot on the secrets, on who did what and who knows about what. Let’s just say it’s not gonna be very common for Mateo to be at the comedic moments of the show. He travels more around the dramatic arc of the show. He’s really discreet. What I do also love about the show is that there is no in-your-face good guy/bad guy. I would dare to say that nobody’s free of sin on this show, and they make sure that you see that. There’s not gonna be a hero that doesn’t have a sinful nature as well.” When I asked if he trusts his own character, Ortiz responded with a sly smile, “You can trust Mateo to take care of things.”

The same way you can trust the production department on this show, as they recreated that incredible Fontainebleau lobby when they rebuilt it on a California soundstage, where the rest of the series would film. “It was a gorgeous set,” Ortiz said. “It was beautiful. Breathtaking is the word. The hotel is a character in the show, so it had to shine. And it definitely does, because the set dressing was impeccable.”

That’s not to say all of his hotel stays have also been impeccable. When I ask Ortiz about his own hotel upgrades over the years, he tells me about a time in San Sebastian, Spain where his ex-wife wanted to let the staff know there was a small crack in the ceiling. He didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but eventually brought it up and they upgraded them to the presidential suite at the property. He also scored a necessary upgrade on a trip to Cambodia, but he’s waiting until the show premieres to expect any other perks coming his way. During his next hotel stays, Ortiz said, “Maybe they’ll see me and they’ll think that I’m a hotel manager and give me some comps! I’m totally open for that.”

Instead, Ortiz is taking his perks in the form of the show’s guest stars, including one he was totally geeking out about. Katey Sagal joins the series in “an amazing role that we can’t talk anything about” that is also “very intense, and one of the most important arcs in the story,” starting in Episode 6 of the season, and Ortiz did his best to keep his cool around the actor he admires so much. “Let me tell you, when I had my first scene with her I was trying to downplay it. But I’m like, it’s Gemma Teller from Sons of Anarchy. I even asked my girlfriend, ‘Should I go in with my Sons of Anarchy t-shirt?’ She was like, ‘That’s a little too much.’ So I didn’t. But obviously I eventually confessed to her, I was like, ‘I’m a huge fan.’ It was a huge honor to play with her.”

@littleleap
Jun 17, 2019 at 12:02pm
Shalim Ortiz of Grand Hotel in black and white on a bright orange background
Photos: Getty Images ; Illustration: Dillen Phelps

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“Great way to kick this off!” actor and musician Shalim Ortiz laughed when the first thing out of my mouth during our interview at the Decider offices last week was not a hard-hitting question, but rather a statement that there are simply so many hot people in his new show Grand Hotel, which premieres tonight on ABC. And it’s true. Watch for just a few minutes and you’ll realize the show about a fancy Miami hotel, its staff, and its guests is packed with nothing but total hotties, very much including Ortiz himself.

Then it was on to more important matters: discussing the news recently broken by Page Six, that executive producer Eva Longoria treated the cast to a yacht party the week they filmed the pilot in Miami. “It’s true!” Ortiz said. He and his co-stars couldn’t help but look around and think, “We’re in for a good adventure.”

A large part of that is due to Longoria as well. “The beautiful thing about it is no one has anything bad to say about Eva for a reason. She is an amazing boss. I’ve known her for years and she always makes sure you meet with her and you hang out with her at that level, a very intimate level, no matter who she works with.” Not only is she a producer on the series, but she’ll also have a recurring guest star role, and just in case that’s not enough, Ortiz said, “She directed Episode 3 which was an amazing experience. She was a great director, an actor’s director, as you can imagine. But at the same time very clear as to how she wants a scene, how she wants to tell the story.”

And there is a lot of story to tell here, as the show’s got 11(!) characters to play with. “It’s a big ensemble,” Ortiz stated. “And no one goes to waste. Everybody is a key figure. There are no fillers, there are no characters that don’t have a very specific key purpose in one of the plots.”

When I ask him about his own character, that of hotel manager Mateo, Ortiz said, “I think in a weird way we were all cast with some sort of element [similar to our] characters.” This was never more true than when they filmed the Grand Hotel pilot at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, and during spring break no less, an experience Ortiz can only describe as “extremely interesting.” While other cast members took full advantage of the partying vacationers, Ortiz kept it, well, rather “Mateo-y.”

“I kept a low profile,” Ortiz said of that crazy week. “I’m the dining guy. I’m the guy that loves a beautiful, mellow dinner. But you couldn’t have that at the Fontainebleau that week. It was mayhem.”

And since Ortiz is also a singer who has worked with Emilio Estefan and put out two albums over the course of his career, can we expect to see him singing on the show any time soon? “I don’t want to say a flat-out no,” he smiled, “But I would be surprised. I just don’t picture Mateo singing. I think it doesn’t go with his demeanor, with his nature.”

So what is his nature exactly? “He’s economical with his words,” Ortiz explained. “He doesn’t take too long to say what he needs to say. I love that not a single frame goes to waste with his storyline and the way he comes out of the shell.”

“He’s got a very interesting relationship with Santiago Mendoza, the owner of the hotel, Demian Bichir’s character. It’s evident from the trailer that there is going to be tension between them, because it is a show that relies a lot on the secrets, on who did what and who knows about what. Let’s just say it’s not gonna be very common for Mateo to be at the comedic moments of the show. He travels more around the dramatic arc of the show. He’s really discreet. What I do also love about the show is that there is no in-your-face good guy/bad guy. I would dare to say that nobody’s free of sin on this show, and they make sure that you see that. There’s not gonna be a hero that doesn’t have a sinful nature as well.” When I asked if he trusts his own character, Ortiz responded with a sly smile, “You can trust Mateo to take care of things.”

The same way you can trust the production department on this show, as they recreated that incredible Fontainebleau lobby when they rebuilt it on a California soundstage, where the rest of the series would film. “It was a gorgeous set,” Ortiz said. “It was beautiful. Breathtaking is the word. The hotel is a character in the show, so it had to shine. And it definitely does, because the set dressing was impeccable.”

That’s not to say all of his hotel stays have also been impeccable. When I ask Ortiz about his own hotel upgrades over the years, he tells me about a time in San Sebastian, Spain where his ex-wife wanted to let the staff know there was a small crack in the ceiling. He didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but eventually brought it up and they upgraded them to the presidential suite at the property. He also scored a necessary upgrade on a trip to Cambodia, but he’s waiting until the show premieres to expect any other perks coming his way. During his next hotel stays, Ortiz said, “Maybe they’ll see me and they’ll think that I’m a hotel manager and give me some comps! I’m totally open for that.”

Instead, Ortiz is taking his perks in the form of the show’s guest stars, including one he was totally geeking out about. Katey Sagal joins the series in “an amazing role that we can’t talk anything about” that is also “very intense, and one of the most important arcs in the story,” starting in Episode 6 of the season, and Ortiz did his best to keep his cool around the actor he admires so much. “Let me tell you, when I had my first scene with her I was trying to downplay it. But I’m like, it’s Gemma Teller from Sons of Anarchy. I even asked my girlfriend, ‘Should I go in with my Sons of Anarchy t-shirt?’ She was like, ‘That’s a little too much.’ So I didn’t. But obviously I eventually confessed to her, I was like, ‘I’m a huge fan.’ It was a huge honor to play with her.”

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GRAND HOTEL star Shalim Ortiz tells us a bit about his streaming habits.

A post shared by Decider.com (@deciderdotcom) on Jun 17, 2019 at 6:31am PDT

And while he was here, we had to get Ortiz to answer our Are You Still Watching? pop culture survey, of course. We learned that he was a “Game of Thrones late bloomer,” and watched every season over the course of the three months when he was filming Grand Hotel. He’s now moved on to Breaking Bad and is already on Season 3!

He’s also a big Billions fan, pointing to Paul Giamatti as one of his favorite actors, even noting that Sideways is the film that always cheers him up. “That’s a movie that makes me love filmmaking and winemaking. It embodies a lot of my passions.” However, his guilty pleasure show would have to be Hell’s Kitchen, and he even got to have dinner with Gordon Ramsay once.

Ortiz credits his “first mainstream dramatic role” as Alejandro Herrera on Heroes as one of his proudest on-screen accomplishments. “Heroes was my beginning into the American market as a Latino actor. So that’s a show and an opportunity that I’m very fond of,” he said sincerely. He is also super proud of the series Magic City, a show that he says his latest, Grand Hotel, “pays homage” to, through the “beauty and elegance of Miami.”

And when it comes to his favorite binge-watching snack, Ortiz confesses, “I love chocolate. I love Lindt 85. But I also love Nutella. I will eat the whole jar. They should make a dairy-free, sugar-free Nutella.” When I asked if that would possibly be any good, Ortiz sighed and said, “No. Probably not.” Luckily, he doesn’t have that problem with Grand Hotel, a show viewers are sure to devour.

Source: Decider