Natasha Rothwell Credits ‘The White Lotus’ For Proving She “Can Be Serious”

As Natasha Rothwell books her return to The White Lotus for Season 3, she’s on a whole different journey this time around.

The How to Die Alone star explained how her 2021 role on Mike White‘s HBO anthology series helped pave the way for her new comedy series, which she also created, premiering Friday on Hulu.

“Well, my true north was authenticity. We are nuanced, complicated people, and I wanted the character to experience and express the full range of emotion because that’s life,” she explained to The A.V. Club.

“To try to categorize it is so Hollywood. I’ve been a victim of that because before it was just like, ‘She’s Kelly from Insecure, she can’t be serious.’ And then I played Belinda in The White Lotus and everyone’s like, ‘She can be serious,'” added Rothwell. “We can do it all; we have the capacity. It was important to me to honor the fullness and complexity of the human experience, especially allowing someone who looks like me to have those emotions and feelings on-screen unapologetically.”

After debuting on Season 1 of The White Lotus as Belinda Lindsey, the resort’s spa manager, Rothwell reprises the role for the Thailand-set third season, which premieres on HBO in 2025.

“I love working with Mike White. He’s just an amazing person and a phenomenal collaborator,” said Rothwell of returning to the show. “Someone once told me that returning to a character is like putting on a wet bathing suit. It’s awkward at first and you’re like, ‘Wait a second,’ but then it starts to feel good and comfortable anyway. It was nice to put Belinda back on again. I’m so, so excited for audiences to see her.”

In How to Die Alone, Rothwell stars as Mel, a JFK airport employee who’s never been in love and given up on her dreams, until she has a near-death experience that forces her to start living her life. Rothwell’s work writing for Insecure and Saturday Night Live also helped prepare her.

“I feel like every project that I’ve had has prepared me for this moment,” said Rothwell of the show. “But I benefited by having a front-row seat to Issa Rae‘s journey and being able to see things that worked or didn’t work, things that I wanted to replicate, and things that worked for her but wouldn’t work for me. Finding out what I wanted to do with this opportunity in terms of populating the writers’ room and department heads on set was [great]. I’m really grateful for having such a diverse history in this industry to be able to pull from.”