How Melissa Fumero Thinks She Affected Amy’s Character Growth On Brooklyn Nine-Nine

During an interview with Buzzfeed in 2021, Melissa Fumero explained that she thought the character of Amy Santiago changed dramatically from her initial audition for the series and attributed that to her own nervous disposition leaking into the character.

“She was very different in the audition. She was really confident, like a tough girl, you know?” Fumero said. “I remember my test with Andy [Samberg] — even the dynamic was different. She was always trying to top him, and there was a real competitiveness with them,” she asserted. “I was so nervous shooting the pilot and was so dorky and awkward; I’ve convinced myself that the writers were watching me and were like, ‘We should write that in.’”

Fumero went on to say that it seemed like Amy Santiago got increasingly anxious and awkward with each new episode, and knowing that (at least in her mind) this change in her character resulted from her own real-life anxiety behavior is certainly quite interesting. Indeed, perhaps the most intriguing part of Fumero’s story is her reference to what Amy was like before the pilot was shot — a tough, somewhat aggressive character whom Fumero says was very similar to the series’ Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz).

Whether or not this shift in Amy’s character came from Fumero’s own nervousness or from the writer’s desire to make her more comedic, the result was that she became one of the funniest and most relatable characters in the whole series.