Stephanie Beatriz Reflects On How Her Dad's Death Helped Her With 'A Man On The Inside'

The actor says she also hopes to keep following the lessons set forth by her "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" co-star Andre Braugher, who died in 2023.

There has always been a softness in the characters that Stephanie Beatriz has portrayed. From the sharp-tongued Rosa Diaz in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” to quirky Mirabel in “Encanto,” it’s Beatriz’s natural ability to add empathy and humanity to her characters that makes her performances so believable. She’s done it once more in her latest role as a no-nonsense retirement home director in Netflix’s “A Man on the Inside,” which premiered all eight episodes Thursday.

“When an audience watches this, I want them to believe that she’s real,” Beatriz says in a Zoom interview about her character Didi. She’s wearing her signature raven-colored hair in a flicked-out bob with the sides delicately tucked behind her ears. A pair of black-framed glasses, and a red and white baseball tee complete her look. “She’s got this soft, sweet heart at all times. Even the people that piss her off, she finds a way to love them.”

Starring alongside Ted Danson, Sally Struthers and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, this new multi-generational comedy from Mike Schur (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Good Place”) is equal parts wholesome and joyful as it is thoughtful and compelling. The series follows Charles (Danson), a retired professor, as he goes undercover at Pacific View Retirement Community in San Francisco. It also provides a deeper look at the aching loneliness of growing old, the pain and grief that follows unexpected loss, and the strength of honesty in our relationships.

Beatriz, 43, says she learned a lot from her legendary septuagenarian costars. In addition to forming genuine connections with her on-screen counterparts in such a short amount of time — the show was filmed in just two months — Beatriz said working alongside Danson was a delight.

“He is so sweet, funny and charming. He’s incredibly authentic, which I appreciate in this particular industry,” she says of her witty costar Danson. “Something that I admire about him is that he’s constantly working on the puzzle of how to make the scene better, funnier, or more interesting. His work is really subtle. Whether or not the audience notices it, he knows what he’s done. He knows that he’d inhabited the character so deeply that he remembers these little things that ultimately make the show better.”