You won’t need to turn up your TV brightness for Hotel Costiera. Jesse Williams promises a colorful feast for the eyes in this White Lotus meets Agatha Christie meets action-adventure series, which debuted on Prime Video with all six episodes on Wednesday, September 24. Set and filmed in Italy’s stunning Amalfi Coast, Williams says they wanted to provide some good, old-fashioned escapism that’s easy to watch.
“There is a smorgasbord of beauty up on that screen,” Williams tells TV Insider in the video interview above. There’s also something for fans worldwide.
“I have discovered fans everywhere,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum says. Hotel Costiera is meant to “cater to them as well, not just in the 50 states.” The series was also a gift to himself, in a way.
“Because so much of my life has been about serious topics and politics and social justice and cerebral things, I wanted to make something that was light and was an escape from that,” he shares. He hopes viewers benefit from that as well.
“Part of the impetus for making Hotel Costiera is to give people, especially in this crazy age we’re in, something to escape to, to put on in your house, relax, sit back, and just binge and have a nice time and heal a bit,” he notes.
Williams blends comedy with action-adventure and drama as Daniel De Luca, an ex-marine who returns to Italy to work at a luxury hotel in Positano. Shortly thereafter, the owner’s daughter disappears, and De Luca is tasked with finding her. In the premiere, another mystery unfolds involving a wealthy hotel guest and his family.
Williams says there are two stories at play in every episode. One is what production called the “vertical story,” he describes. “Each episode, there’s something that has to be tackled and dealt with in this episode.” These are the fires that Daniel and his ragtag team of fixers have to put out daily. And then there’s the “horizontal story,” a.k.a. “the long story that develops pretty quickly,” Williams explains. That’s the mystery about the hotel owner’s missing daughter.
Amazon MGM Studios
The actor says they play with tone throughout the season so that no two episodes are alike. “If you’ve seen the first two episodes, you haven’t seen the rest,” he teases, adding, “We might lean into comedy in a certain episode, and it might get really dark and violent in a fifth episode, which is very different than the family drama and spat happening in Episode 4.”
Being one of the only Americans on the crew (Williams produced the series in addition to starring), the actor had an illuminating experience with European work culture. The pace is slower, breaks are honored, and the hustle isn’t as intense. The work got done, but people got their rest as well. Williams says this reflects onscreen with the characters.
“Daniel’s trying to keep us on course, and that is actually a bit of a mirror to how I felt sometimes as the only American there,” he tells us, “which doesn’t mean I was right.”
Daniel is Italian and American and spent the first years of his upbringing in Italy before moving to America with his mom. Viewers will find out why his military career abruptly ended — and most importantly, what he and his team are all running from — throughout the first season.
“What we learned about the Amalfi Coast is, it’s a place where people go to hide as much as it is a place where people go to vacation,” Williams warns.
Costarring alongside him are a cast of Italian and British actors. Daniel’s fixer crew is comprised of Bigné (Antonio Gerardi), whom Williams says is Daniel’s surrogate “older brother from growing up in the hood.” Sam Haygarth plays Tancredi, “this really hilarious British guy who is just a wealth of useless knowledge, but an old aristocrat from the last vestiges of an aristocratic family that actually doesn’t have any money anymore,” Williams describes. “But he’s a connector to get things done.”
“And then the real brains of the operation, disguised in beauty, is played by Jordan Alexandra,” Williams notes. “She plays Genny, and she’s a utility knife. She can do anything and solve anything and charm the hell out of people.”
What this “hodgepodge” group, as Williams describes them, has in common is that “they’re all in denial about something,” just like the guests visiting the Hotel Costiera. They can run from their pasts, but they can’t hide.
The series also stars Tommaso Ragno, Maria Chiara Giannetta, Amanda Campana, and more. Learn more about Hotel Costiera, including Williams’ hopes for a second season, in the full video interview above.
Hotel Costiera, Available Now, Prime Video