Why Did Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Stephanie Beatriz Cry In An Interview?

Stephanie Beatriz, known for her role as Detective Rosa Diaz in the NBC comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, broke down in tears while talking about representation the LGBTQ+ community is getting in the entertainment industry.

The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star recently sat down with Daniel Levy, who plays David Rose in Schitt's Creek, and Kelly Clarkson in The Kelly Clarkson Show to talk about the fight for better representation of the LGBTQ+ community which includes people from all walks of life.

The two queer actors talked about the importance of expanding and furthering identity representation on television. They also expressed their admiration for each other's works. 

"I just have to say, as a fellow person in the queer community, I am so amazed by you. I think the fact that the Human Rights Campaign is honoring you is not enough," Beatriz told Levy. 

On Accepting Gender Identity

The American Idol singer asked Beatriz about how people who are not familiar with the LGBTQ+ community could accept these characters.

Beatriz said the shows help viewers fall in love with the character, and by the time their gender identity is revealed, the audience "knows you and trusts you." 

For maybe quite a few people, you're going to be the first person that they're meeting that identifies that way or is that sexuality," she said.

Stephanie also gushed about the opportunity to portray an openly bisexual woman who is also Latina. 

Coming Out

[Spoiler Alert: This section contains spoilers for "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" Season 5, Episode 10 "Game Night"]

Stephanie Beatriz, who came out as bisexual in 2016 in a Twitter post, also revealed her gender identity on the Fox comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

The hit series chose its 99th episode to highlight every character during a road trip to New York. 

The episode included a big reveal that became the central part of the show's 100th episode "Game Night."

Detective Rosa Diaz, who everyone knows is the show's badass, came out as bisexual.

Dan Goor, the showrunner, told IndieWire the coming out story was made after a discussion with Stephanie Beatriz. He said he felt like it was a meaningful opportunity for the character whos actress became such an LGBT advocate after coming out.

Goor also said they had a lot of discussions and conversations with the actress, including "what she wanted to say and what her experience was." 

He revealed Beatriz was intimately involved in the production of the story, as well as how her colleagues said to her. 

Rosa Diaz also came out to her screen parents Julia (Olga Merediz) and Oscar (Danny Trejo), a key scene that shows the concept of bisexuality which some struggle to understand.

Stephanie told Variety she was excited to come out in the show because of the lack of representation there was while she was growing up. She also said a lot of the gay characters she can remember were often stereotypes.

The showrunner Goor also agreed that bisexuality is still underrepresented in media and felt it was important to be specific and reflective of the fact that coming out as bisexual and coming out as gay is very different. 

"There have been some coming-out stories on television, obviously, and it felt interesting and different to do this specific coming-out story because there haven't been as many bisexual coming-out stories, I think. And that it's a specific thing, that it's a different thing, and that was interesting."