Hotel Cocaine is the story of Roman Compte (Danny Pino), Cuban exile and general manager of the Mutiny Hotel, the glamorous epicenter of the Miami cocaine scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
The Mutiny Hotel was Casablanca on cocaine; a glitzy nightclub, restaurant, and hotel frequented by Florida businessmen and politicians, international narcos, CIA and FBI agents, models, sports stars, and musicians. At the center of it all was Compte, who was doing his best to keep it all going and fulfill his own American Dream.
Chris Brancato created the series and serves as executive producer and showrunner. Guillermo Navarro directed the pilot and executive produces the series alongside Brancato, with Michael Panes and Alfredo Barrios Jr. also serving as executive producers.
Home Grown Radio was in attendance during Hotel Cocaine’s Los Angeles premiere where we talked with the cast members, who share their excitement about the new thrilling show.
During the premiere, Pino expressed how he made sure to get advice from Compte’s family, especially his son, Maurice Compte, about playing the role of his father on the big screen.
“Speaking to Maurice who was incredibly generous with specifics about his father and memories of his father growing up,” Pino shared with Home Grown Radio. “His father at the mutiny, his father at home, his father before the mutiny, as a Cuban exile, politics, the geopolitics involved with all of that and the authenticity of that. Then of course, taking you know that foundation of who the man actually was and then working with Chris Brancato and giving shape, a narrative to that and fictionalizing a great majority of the person that we see on screen but still with the foundation of who Maurice remembers.”
When we spoke to Maurice, he told us it was a dream come true for hims to have this series come to life.
“Here we are, he shared. “We’re talking about it. We’re doing it. My dad is a catalyst in this larger story. I didn’t just want to do it from my dad. I wanted to do it from my neighborhood. For the people that I grew up with. For my next door neighbors. For every cuban that was in Miami that had to sacrifice something to be there.”
As Maurice mentioned, this series showcases a bigger story for those who flee their countries to live the American dream. Corina Bradley plays Valeria, Roman’s daughter, and expresses reasoning similar to Maurice’s.
“From the name you expect the show just to be about drugs and all this,” Bradly said. “But really there are so many layers and what it really comes down to is how much we all care about each other. The length that we’ll go to take care for one another.”
Overall, Brancato wants everyone to enjoy Hotel Cocaine. “As the tag line says, ‘every pleasure has a price,’ I don’t want do advertisements for drug use. I don’t want tp do advertisements for drugs selling,” he told us. “What I want is this to be a real hard look at how that there is a cost to all of the pleasures in life. We wanted to do a fun entertaining, sunny sexy show that’s in Miami and I think we did it. – Chris Brancato
You can watch Hotel Cocaine when it premieres on MGM+ on June 16. For now, let us know if you’ll be watching the series by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or letting us know on social media: @homegrownradio.