“Airports are, like, my favorite place,” the actor Natasha Rothwell said the other day. She was at J.F.K., but not to fly anywhere. She sat in a ketchup-colored sunken lounge in the lobby of the T.W.A. Hotel, the chic mid-century-modern destination repurposed from the former T.W.A. terminal. The Beach Boys blasted from speakers, and an old-school departures board clattered overhead. She ordered the Clear Skies Sangria.
Rothwell, who is best known for playing an outspoken accountant on “Insecure” and a spa manager on “The White Lotus,” chose J.F.K. as the setting for her new Hulu sitcom, “How to Die Alone.” She plays Mel, a beleaguered accessibility driver who, despite working at the airport, has never been on a flight. “There’s something poetic, albeit cliché, about starting to live and take off in your life,” Rothwell said. Airports, which are not most people’s favorite places, appeal to her as a voyeur. Plus, she wanted to shine a spotlight on airport workers: T.S.A. screeners, baggage handlers. “We overlook the people who help us get to where we’re going,” she noted.
Unlike Mel, Rothwell is a frequent flier. Her father was in the Air Force—he retired as a commander at Fort Dix—and she grew up all over: Florida, Maryland, Illinois, Turkey. “I was too young to marvel at being in Incirlik, but there are pictures of me looking very distraught in front of gorgeous ruins,” she said. She tends not to miss flights—“I’m a military brat, so early is on time”—but she’s had close calls. “I’m a little neuro-spicy, so loud noises and lots of people can give me anxiety,” she explained. “I have my noise-cancelling headphones, and so the gate will change, and I won’t know, because I’m into an audiobook.” She’d just been at the Essence Festival of Culture, in New Orleans, and missed a connecting flight back to L.A., so she and the d.j. D-Nice were stranded at a Radisson in Minnesota. “I went to a Chili’s and made the best of the night,” she said brightly.
Growing up, she recalled, she saw each move as an “opportunity to reinvent myself.” Those transformations led her to acting. She studied theatre at the University of Maryland, then spent a year in Japan, teaching English and performing at Tokyo Comedy Store shows. “There was a lot of reclamation of travel in adulthood,” she said. When she settled in New York, in 2008, it was her first home that “wasn’t dictated by a military move.” For four years, she taught theatre at a Bronx charter school by day and did comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade by night. When she realized that she was urging her students to chase their dreams but shortchanging her own, she quit. In 2014, she auditioned for “Saturday Night Live,” playing a drunk Maya Angelou, and was hired as a writer. She moved to L.A. to write for “Insecure,” and Issa Rae picked her from the writers’ room to join the cast.
“How to Die Alone” is Rothwell’s first time creating and starring in her own show. “In real life, I don’t have main-character energy at all,” she admitted. “For me, it’s, like, give me my dog and the Times crossword and a murder doc, and I’m happy. And a fistful of edibles, but that’s a different story.” She’d recently flown back from Thailand—with layovers in Dubai and Texas—where she spent almost five months filming the third season of “The White Lotus”; her character, a fan favorite from Season 1, is making a much anticipated return. “I was able to see some temples and explore a little bit,” she said. At one point, she and her co-star Parker Posey both got COVID and were stuck in their hotel rooms. “She was, like, ‘Do you want some nuts? I’m feeding the birds!’ ”
Up a swooping staircase, Rothwell checked out a display of vintage T.W.A. uniforms. “This is so cool,” she said. “I did this sketch character at U.C.B. called the Flight Attendant. Her previous flight crash-landed, but now she’s back at work, and she’s, like, ‘Do you have the capacity to open that door if we land in the ocean? Don’t lie to me.’ ” She gasped at a modish sky-blue hostess uniform from the late sixties: “Balmain? Shut up! It’s a lewk.”
As she headed out, a young Black woman approached her for a selfie, beaming: “This makes my three-day trip back home awesome!” Her name was Glory, and she was on a layover between Oxford, where she studies, and Houston. “I did the cheapest way, not the most efficient way,” she told Rothwell. “But I’ll get home eventually.”
“Safe travels!” Rothwell said, and smiled as Glory walked off. “I just love seeing brown people travel,” she added. “We’re doin’ it! Yeah!” ♦
