Real-life Miami roots drew Yul Vazquez, Danny Pino to 'Hotel Cocaine'

NEW YORK, July 13 (UPI) -- Yul Vazquez and Danny Pino say they were eager to explore a transformative era in Miami history through their new crime drama, Hotel Cocaine, because they both have deep personal connections to the Florida city.

Airing Sunday nights on MGM+, the show is set in the 1970s.

It follows Roman Compte (Pino), a Cuban exile and general manager of The Mutiny Hotel, a hot spot where businessmen, politicians, international Narcos, CIA and FBI agents, models, sports stars and musicians partied together.

However, Roman's American dream comes screeching to a halt when he gets caught between the Drug Enforcement Agency and his older brother, Nestor (Vazquez), Miami's biggest supplier of cocaine.

Michael Chiklis, Mark Feuerstein, Laura Gordon, Tania Watson and Corina Bradley co-star in the show, which was filmed in the Dominican Republic.

"I grew up in Miami, so it's a place I love," Vazquez, 59, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"I studied how Miami Beach was developed, so I'm obsessed with Miami. I love doing Miami shows and I'm bummed we cannot shoot in Miami, but Miami is easy for me. That's just easy bait."

Pino, who was also raised in the city, was drawn to the show largely because it gave him the chance to share the screen with Vazquez, a fellow Cuban American.

"We sort of circled our orbits for many years where I'd heard of him and I watched his work and admired his work from afar," said Pino, 50.

"We had mutual friends who couldn't believe that we didn't actually know each other until one auspicious day on the set of Law & Order: SVU where he came in playing Fin Tutuola's partner," Pino said.

"We were able to finally meet, and the key master and the gatekeeper finally crossed paths. Our Cuban-ess and our Miami-ness brought us so closely intertwined that it felt like we were never really ever not in each other's lives."

Vazquez initially called Pino to discuss co-starring in Cocaine Hotel while Vazquez was working on Godfather of Harlem with writer-producer Chris Brancato and Pino was starring in Mayans, M.C.

In addition to creating Cocaine Hotel and Godfather of Harlem, Brancato also helmed the crime drama, Narcos.

"I said, 'I'm in!' and [Vazquez] said, 'Maybe you should read the script,' and I said, 'You're right,' but to go with a Cuban analogy, the dominoes were falling in the right direction," Pino recalled.

Vazquez agreed. "Danny and I get along like a house on fire," he said.

"Danny is my brother," Vazquez added. "I've always loved Danny from the day I met him. We get along great. He's a great actor. I love working with him.

"Even a brief stint on his show [SVU] that he was doing was like an amuse bouche to the further seven-course meal that we were about to eat with Hotel Cocaine."

The siblings they play, however, are not as close when viewers first meet them.

"Nestor is gorgeous. He's misunderstood," Vazquez quipped.

"No, Nestor is a lot like some of the guys I knew," he said. "Guys that are salt-of-the-earth guys that I would never want on my bad side. I've known them for years and have never had an issue with them. But I know I've seen what they're capable of doing, so that's Nestor."

Roman distances himself from his outlaw brother in an effort to go straight, but trouble always seems to find him.

"He has a legitimate job. He takes that path because he's a father," Pino said. "He has his daughter, Valeria (Bradley), in his life, and his priority is to raise her and protect her."

He also now has a loving girlfriend, Marisol (Watson) after losing his wife back in Cuba.

"That's a wound that actually brings Valeria and Roman closer together -- sharing that trauma, that loss," Pino said.

Professionally, Roman is on top of the world when the show opens.

"In his mind, it's the best job to have, that he could ever imagine, ever aspire to," Pino said.

"He is the ringmaster of the Studio 54 of the Caribbean, the Rick's Cafe of 1978, the Casablanca of 1978, up until the point at which he runs into Agent Zulio, played by Michael Chiklis, who makes him a deal he cannot refuse."

This unwelcome offer catapults Roman back into Nestor's world, forcing him to infiltrate his brother's nefarious business and putting himself, his family and everything he's worked for at risk, according to Pino.

Even though they have vastly different jobs and lifestyles, Roman loves and misses Nestor.

"Being estranged from his brother has cost him dearly. That's his best friend," Pino said.

"That's the person who he has suffered the majority of his life with, through the loss of his homeland, through the Bay of Pigs Invasion, through having to come to the United States, always looking back toward Cuba, waiting to go back to their homeland, never thinking that Miami was their final destination."

The tense reunion of the brothers mirrors the way Miami was changing during this time period.

"Miami is transforming. These tectonic plates are shifting from being a sort of sleepy retirement community to the volatile, cosmopolitan, sophisticated metropolis that Miami is now," Pino said.

"That shift starts during our show [with] the curtain of the Cold War and the beginning of the cocaine wars in Miami," he added.

"It makes it a very dangerous time, and then you have this great family drama in the center of that. That is what the show is about. It's about the family drama and all of these other elements involved that are ripping it apart."