Natasha Rothwell Brings ‘Gravity and Levity’ to ‘How To Die Alone’

When Natasha Rothwell was writing and co-starring on HBO’s dramedy Insecure, she told Vulture’s Kenneth Arthur, “we’re elevating the ordinary to extraordinary by showing a slice of life that is not often told. I think a lot of times black women are expected to be certain things, so we don’t have the opportunity often just to be regular or to be not that inspiring or being sort of not good at a lot, not embodying black girl magic all the time.” Rothwell played Kelli, whose hilariously ungovernable moments out with her friends — “Remember me different” is just one of the many Kelli lines that entered pop culture history — belied the fact that she actually had it together at work. A successful accountant, Kelli is the reason the show’s protagonist, Issa (series creator Issa Rae), manages to rebuild her credit and life; presumably none of her professional colleagues has any idea that Kelli occasionally uses her down time to, for example, indulge in secret sexual activity under the table at a popular west L.A. diner.

In How To Die Alone — which Rothwell created, and which premieres September 13th — Rothwell continues “elevating the ordinary to extraordinary” with an even more ordinary character. Rothwell stars as Melissa, who drives an airport courtesy shuttle at JFK. As a single woman, Mel leans on her platonic friendships — particularly with Rory (Conrad Ricamora), who works at one of the airport’s many Hudson News locations. When he cancels their plans on her birthday, Mel comforts herself with a trip to “Ümlaüt,” an entirely copyright-safe Swedish home furnishings store. Convincing herself that, instructions to the contrary, Mel certainly can assemble her new armoire without a partner, disaster strikes, leading Mel to take stock of her life, and Rory’s place in it.

Since Rothwell, like Mel, counts The Office among her go-to comfort shows, our recent conversation focused on How To Die Alone as a workplace comedy with relationship stories nestled in it. Read on to find out what Rothwell learned about airports after setting a show in one; how Mel’s transportation job mirrors her personal journey; and which workplace sitcoms she considers most essential.

I know from your past interviews that you, like Melissa, are a big fan of The Office. Are there other workplace shows that have been formative to you?

So many. Most recently Abbott Elementary. I think it’s just so brilliant. I think Cheers is the quintessential workplace comedy. It’s one of my all-time favorites. I think we see the people we work with more than our families, and so I think it’s a worthy subject matter that doesn’t really get old.

When it came time to make your own show that’s largely set at work, what were the elements that you wanted to make sure you included?

I wanted to make sure that it had gravity and levity. So often, workplace comedies aren’t afforded the opportunity to have moments of depth, and to me, that just feels more like real life. Being able to have a workplace comedy that allows for the whole, full spectrum of emotion was important to me. Especially being a plus-sized Black protagonist, it’s few and far between that I get opportunities to play characters like that.

How did you arrive at airport terminal driver as the right job for Melissa?

Well, the airport is just the most delicious Petri dish of human existence. It brings out the best in people, the worst in people. It’s, like, this liminal space. It’s purgatory. It’s a beautiful place to sort of anchor someone who’s stuck in between who she wants to be and who she is. And I wanted someone who was customer-facing and was helping people to literally get to where they wanted to go, because she can’t really get to where she wants to go. Not to abuse the metaphor, but it really lent itself to a story about aspiration and longing and desire.

There are also so many different kinds of jobs within all the realms in the airport: lost and found, confiscated items, et cetera. How did you develop stories that revealed these secret places organically?

Sarah Fiori and Caroline Martin were our writers’ assistants, and they did so much research on behalf of the writers. That way, we had what we needed to really be authentic. There’s a falconer in the show. That’s a real job. The birdman: that’s the literal title of the job, is birdman. It should be birdperson. 

It was so fun and interesting to dive in to that ecosystem, because you realize it truly takes an army to sustain our travel, and we do next to nothing to recognize that. So it was a delight to put those marginalized voices center frame.

Were there some that you saved for a possible second season?

Oh, yeah. There are a myriad of jobs at the airport: it’s ripe for storytelling. So knock on wood, if we’re given a second season, I’m excited to explore those.

In past interviews when you’ve talked about why you love romantic comedies, you’ve said you want to have a moment where a character you play is running through an airport for a dramatic moment. How did you restrain yourself and only give Mel a few?

For me, the rom-com of the show is like a Trojan horse for some real meaty conversation, so I didn’t want to abuse the privilege of the location to scratch that itch. I still want my proper rom-com movie for sure, but it was nice to sort of play with those tropes in some new and interesting ways on the show.

As the title suggests, this is also a show about loneliness, including in a work-based friendship. What conversations went into calibrating the kinds of conflict that Rory and Mel could have and still find their way back to each other as friends?

Yeah, I think when we are embarking on a journey of personal growth, we have to audit our relationships to see if they’re wind at our back or a parachute we’re running with. I think those are hard conversations and hard realizations to have — that that friendship that sustained you in your 20s may not sustain you in your 30s and your 40s. And I think we have to do the work of having those tough conversations with ourselves and really setting up boundaries and expressing our needs and our wants.

This is coming from someone who was a needless wonder in my 20s. I didn’t want to express what I needed or wanted, and I felt like I was used in a lot of friendships — and willingly, because I didn’t have the voice or the courage to stand up for what I wanted or needed. So to have Mel be activated and be presented with that fork in the road, to continue down the same path or to forge a different one, I think it’s exciting to see someone do that, because it’s ultimately what we all want to do. And she becomes this protagonist we can all root for.

We’ll see you return to your other workplace dramedy soon, in the third season of The White Lotus. Walton Goggins was very shocked by a room service bill he got. Did you also splash out when you were on your downtime shooting the show?

I got more massages in five months than any human should get in their lifetime. It was a treat and a half.