By H. Alan Scott

Copyright newsweek

Jesse Williams attends the got milk?’s 30th Anniversary Milk Mustache Celebration at The Lot at Formosa on September 09, 2025 in West Hollywood, California.

“I very much feel like I’m just starting my career.”

For Hotel Costiera, Jesse Williams was drawn to making “something that’s global.” The new Prime Video series stars Williams as Daniel De Luca, a former Marine who returns home to Italy to work at a hotel, only to find himself tasked with finding the missing daughter of the hotel’s owner. While he has “no complaints” filming in Positano paradise, “I tried to stay relatively disciplined, but I ate a lot of pasta and bread.” Of the character, he related to his duality. “I don’t really say I’m half anything,” he notes. “That has to have found itself stewing in something Daniel De Luca is dealing with.” The series represents a new phase for Williams, taking creative control as a producer. “It certainly feels good…to [have people] bet on you in the same way you’re trying to bet on yourself.” After leaving his role on Grey’s Anatomy, his first move was a deliberate challenge, Broadway, and now this, raising the stakes by creating an original show. “Like, it’s really trying to forge something new in a space.” But ultimately, it’s all about the process. “I love the collaboration that exists in our business.”

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARTING SHOT WITH H. ALAN SCOTTON APPLE PODCASTS OR SPOTIFY AND WATCH ON YOUTUBE

Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.

Jesse Williams in Prime Video’s Hotel Costiera.

You know Jesse, watching Hotel Costiera, I kept thinking the one thing, “What a hard gig Jesse has. Filming in paradise. Soooo hard.” I mean, the gig just gets harder and harder, doesn’t it?

That’s fair. Of all the places in the world, no complaints.

You’re a professional, but how do you do it in this beautiful location and not just wanna say, “Oh, I’m gonna be an hour late today.”

That’s a fair question. I think because I’m a producer, like a very active producer, I constantly had a list of deliverables. We’re casting somebody with art direction, we’ve got to change wardrobe, this location we lost, it’s raining. So I was so involved in other things that I had somebody to hold me accountable. Like I had things that I had to check in with. I couldn’t just disappear to Capri for half a day, which was tempting. I mean, the food, the wine, it was a trip. I tried to stay relatively disciplined, but I ate a lot of pasta and bread, and I lost 13 pounds on this. Because their food is real food. It’s not American poison. It’s not enriched crap. Like it’s crazy. It’s flour and water.

Their food is basically the natural Ozempic. I was wondering that, like, you’re in this place with great food but you’re also the star and need to look hot in these fight scenes. How do you do that?

I was exhausted. It was me versus my own eye bags. That was really the battle, less than the gut. But that was my worry. And everybody, the culture there, it’s like family and hospitality and eat, eat, eat. You look skinny, eat eat eat. Everybody wants to feed you. So I thought that was gonna be more of a problem, but it was just maintaining energy, trying to get decent sleep, consistent sleep. But I was constantly pinching myself, looking out at this vista, at this coast, at this landscape, it was spectacular.

To be at this point in your career where you can produce a show at this level, what is that like for you? What does that mean for you right now?

Well, the thing is, there’s the work and then we’re about to see the result. The work I’ll speak to first, I love it. I love to work. I love to be on set. I love to compare ideas. I love being wrong. I love debate and figuring something out and agree[ing] and disagree[ing[. I love the collaboration that exists in our business. And it’s so much more rewarding when it’s a little collective successes. So the process is super enjoyable. It is certainly validating. It certainly feels good to be able to have in anything that you’re doing, to feel like you have a little bit of juice. You’ll get another five minutes for people to listen, to hear you out, or to have faith or to bet on you in the same way you’re trying to bet on yourself. I’ve bet on myself a ton, and it failed. That’s part of it, you know, and this is being able to have another swing. All we can ever ask for is the patience and allowance of others to give you a chance and a second chance. And so it’s certainly been very rewarding in that respect to have a partnership with Adam Bernstein, our showrunner, and certainly Lux Vide, who originated the idea, and Amazon, both in Italy and internationally. To …