Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Actress Who Almost Played Amy

Here’s the actress who almost played Amy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine instead of Melissa Fumero. As one of the original cast members, the over-achieving member of the 99th Precinct has gone through a lot of things in the last seven seasons — both in terms of her professional and personal life. She’s now a lieutenant on the way to becoming a captain, while she also grows a family with Jake (Andy Samberg). However, if things panned out differently, Amy would’ve been played by a different Brooklyn Nine-Nine star.

In its seven-season run, viewers loved the cop sitcom for its progressive characters and humorous storylines. That said, much like any other ensemble project, one of its biggest crowd draws is the chemistry among its cast members. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has gone through several changes over the years, both off and on-screen, including switching broadcasting stations; however, it has mainly kept its core cast intact. Aside from Chelsea Peretti’s Gina, no one has left or replaced — a testament to the show’s casting process.

At one point, however, a different Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress almost got the role of Amy. Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Rosa Diaz, in the show, also auditioned for the role after wanting to do comedy for so long as she revealed in her interview with BUILD Series. The In the Heights actress fit the bill, just like Fumero did, as Amy was written to be Latina. Beatriz got a callback for the part; she came in and screen-tested with Andy Samberg who was already attached to the project by then. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out that well as the actress recalled how her nerves got the best of her given her admiration for her now-co-star.

There are no hard feelings about losing the role of Amy to Fumero; however, as trying for the part subsequently landed Beatriz the role of Rosa. After reading for the part, the show’s casting director asked her to also try for the role of Megan, which eventually developed to become the leather-wearing Rosa who was not necessarily written to be Latina. Beatriz got a callback for both roles and the next day after her botched chemistry test with Samberg, she went back and did one for Megan. While she did so much better with it, however, she assumed that Brooklyn Nine-Nine wouldn’t cast two Latinas in an ensemble show, and since Fumero already netted the role of Amy, there’s slim to no chance that they’ll also hire her for Megan. Thankfully, she predicted things wrong and she was also brought in for the now-popular sitcom.

Considering how Beatriz does so well bringing the bad-ass, no-nonsense Rosa to life, it’s fascinating to imagine her playing the sweet and often-reserved Amy. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has paired up the characters several times which highlighted their differences but proving that despite that, they can be really great friends, on-and-off work. In hindsight, everything turned out for the best seeing how well both Beatriz and Fumero play Rosa and Amy respectively.

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