Though she’s just over 5 feet tall, Nuyorican actress Liza Colón-Zayas seemed smaller seated at the tabletop of
@mofongosla , a family-run North Hollywood Puerto Rican eatery where The Times’ Yvonne Villarreal met her just before the third season premiere of
#TheBear .
Unlike her character on
@thebearfx , the no-nonsense cook Tina Marrero,
@lizacolonzayas_lcz isn’t stingy or curt with her words and is more likely to insist you sample her order of mofongo de carne guisada than try to sabotage the cooking of your stock by turning up the flame to high heat. But much like her character, Colón-Zayas knows what it’s like to be in plain sight, putting in the work for years, hoping for the nexus of potential and opportunity.
With a nearly 30-year career, Colón-Zayas is an Off Broadway veteran. She’s performed on a string of television shows and films over the years, often in day-player roles but also in roles that tapped her range. Then came “The Bear,”
@fxnetworks ’ critical and audience darling, which has nabbed a slew of awards to back up the hype.
For two seasons, her character has simmered on the back burner — active and essential but not at a full boil just yet. As a new regime takes over at the Original Beef of Chicagoland following the death of its owner, Michael “Mikey” Berzatto (Jon Bernthal), Tina’s guard is up, resistant to the orders being slung at her by new, younger bosses. In time, she relaxes enough to see that change could be for the better — last season, she enrolled in culinary school and was promoted to sous chef.
“I get her,” Colón-Zayas says. “She’s on guard, like, ‘You’re walking into my territory.’ This is not just a job. This is a made family. Restaurants, old-school traditional ones, are shutting down all around us. She doesn’t know what the changes Carmy is trying to make will mean. And we’ve just lost a family member, Mikey.”
In the third season, Tina comes into focus. And so does Colón-Zayas.
The Times’
@villarrealy sits down with Colón-Zayas at the link in
@latimes_entertainment ’s bio.
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