NEW YORK -- Everyone is talking about Liza Colón-Zayas's performance as Tina the line cook in FX on Hulu's "The Bear." She recently received an Emmy nod for her performance, nominated alongside greats like Meryl Streep and Carol Burnett for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Eyewitness News entertainment reporter Joelle Garguilo caught up with Colón-Zayas at Counter and Bodega -- one of the actress' favorite Puerto Rican restaurants in the city to talk about representing women of color, Puerto Rican pride and her pinch-me moment.
While many of us have fallen in love with her character, Colón-Zayas never imagined getting this kind of attention. The newest season of "The Bear" showed us more of her character's backstory. It turns out Colón-Zayas's story is every bit as inspiring.
"After I graduated college, it was a couple of years of just having survival jobs, being a terrible waitress, working temp jobs," Colón-Zayas said. "I would be the first one. I would get there when they opened even if they didn't have anything for me, because where I was coming from in the Bronx they weren't gonna call me.
..I would go in and make the morning coffee and be like, where it is.
And so all of those steps, they all build. I feel like they all built Tina." The actress said she learned how alike she was to her character.
"I learned that just believe in yourself as much as others believe in you. Try to take that on," Colón-Zayas said. The 52-year-old actress reflected on ho.