When actor Natasha Rothwell took on the role of spa manager Belinda in Season one of the HBO series The White Lotus, she assumed her character's story ended when the shoot wrapped. "We were sold on a limited series," she says. "It was one and done."
The 2021 show was a dark comedy about the complex racial, class and gender dynamics among guests and staff of a luxury hotel in Hawaii. Season one proved a surprise hit, spurning a follow-up season set in Sicily. Rothwell watched Season two at home — then received a surprise call from show creator Mike White, asking her if she would bring Belinda back for Season three.
In Season one, a wealthy white woman named Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) becomes enamored with Belinda for her skill as a massage therapist. She promises to fund Belinda's dream of opening her own spa — but then flakes when she begins dating a fellow vacationer.
Rothwell says the new season finds Belinda "on the precipice of change." She's on a worker-exchange program in Thailand, straddling the line between resort employee and guest.
"It highlights code switching and highlights the passport you'd need to sort of move between those two spaces," Rothwell says. "When she's leaning on that foot that's in the guest lane, she's allowing herself to speak up and advocate for her needs a little bit more, [and] I think it's always cool to see someone audition that kind of version of themselves."
Rothwell says she was initially intimidated to return for Season three because the show had become so popular, but her nerves subsided once she showed up on set and saw so many familiar faces, from the hair and makeup team to the assistant director.
"What grounded me ... [was] the people," she says. "I was like, 'Oh, yeah, the heart and soul of this show is the same.' "
Plus, Season three co-star Carrie Coon had some helpful advice about returning to a familiar character, which Coon likened to putting on a wet bathing suit.
"She's like ... 'You know it fits. It fits a little awkward, but once you're in the water, it feels great,' " Rothwell says. "I felt very similar to that, I think, just having been away from Belinda for so long. But yeah, as soon as I got to set and put her on, it felt like home."
Before The White Lotus, Rothwell worked as a writer on Saturday Night Live during the 2014-15 season. She was also a writer, supervising producer and co-star in the HBO series Insecure. And she created and starred in her own 2024 Hulu series called How to Die Alone.
Interview highlights
On shooting in Thailand for five months
You can't help but have a spiritual experience there. It's such a special place. I learned while I was there [that] Thailand has never been colonized. And so it's a really interesting juxtaposition to being from the States where we're constantly in this trauma response from our history and to go to a place that doesn't have that, it brings out, at some level, a certain kind of levity of just being alive. …
They call it the land of smiles. You meet people, there's no preconceived notions of who you are, where you are from. And I think walking around the world as a Black woman, there's all these suppositions about who I am and where I'm from and what I believe in. They wait for you to declare who you are, what you are about.
On an idea she pitched to Mike White about having Belinda see a Black couple as guests at the hotel, not as employees
With Belinda being in a foreign country, I was just reiterating the importance of Black travel and how once when I was traveling to Ireland, I was at some castle on the top of some misty hill. … I was the only Black person I could see. But this Black family — a mother, father and two kids that were around 12 or 11 — sort of walk up the hill and break through the mist. And I just looked at them and they looked at me and we just kind of walked towards each other and hugged.
And I was explaining to Mike [White], I was just like, "When you see yourself reflected in a space … it just lets you know you belong there." And I felt similarly, the first time I saw a Black person sitting in first class. It was a sort of subconscious reminder that I belong there. I think when Belinda, in that moment, sees this couple who's not there on a work-study program, just there, she sees that, it's an internal affirmation that she can lean back and enjoy her wine in this moment. She doesn't have to be in this servile position as a default. She can experience life from that perspective as well.
On her sense of the importance of checking in on hotel and serving staff
It's always been my position to sort of move through the world in a place where I want to make sure people feel seen. … I didn't come into money. I worked for everything I have. And I was in the service industry. I've been in Belinda's shoes where it's just like, I got to take this on the chin and I have to be in this room, and no one even knows my name or cares to learn it, you know? So when I'm in those positions now, I try to just maintain the same M.O. I started out with, which is just like, I see you. "You good? How can I be someone who can make your day a little bit better?" … I've definitely had moments in Hollywood events and stuff like that where the waiter or waitress come by and I'll ask them how they're doing and they're like, shook.
On her series How to Die Alone, which won an Independent Spirit Award, yet was canceled after one season
I was pretty shocked. The landscape of Hollywood has been interesting, I think, in a post-strike world. But I think even zooming farther out, television led by Black stars and shows that are centering marginalized voices aren't getting the support and placement that they need. It's unfortunate that How to Die Alone didn't meet the metric that the studio was using to make their decision. But I'm so proud of what I've created. You can imagine the dissonance being on stage, accepting an award like that, that's so major, for a show that was canceled — the math ain't mathing. And so I think for me, it just tells me that I'm just going to continue to fight harder and do what I can … to make sure that visibility is not a consequence of the whims of executives that care more about money than the creative.
On her relationship with the word "fat" in the production of How to Die Alone
I went into many meetings, many zooms over that word because folks were scared of it. ... When I was younger, I used to cry when I was called it, and then cut to now, I wanted that word to no longer be pejorative. It's just a fact. It has no indication of my heart, my intellect, my creativity, my business acumen, my kindness. ...
I had a meeting before we started production … I addressed everyone on the call sheet. I said, "The word 'fat' is not pejorative. So when you are on set and you're using this word in a pejorative way, know that is not accepted. … We are not going to create a space where anyone is going to be made to feel discomfort based off of that word."
On landing the role of Kelli on Insecure, as a writer in the writers' room
A lot of people think that I auditioned for Kelli and that Kelli existed from the beginning, and none of that could be further from the truth. We were in the writers' room. I had blinders on. This was my first non-sketch scripted writers' room, so I wanted to do that right. I had zero aspirations to try to jockey to be on the screen. I just want to be the best writer possible. …
Part of [the writing] process is the writers reading the scripts aloud in the writers' room just so we can hear it, and making sure that it sings. And I was always being cast as Kelli because [creator Issa Rae] would cast us in the writers' room. … I thought I was selling it for its existence, not trying to sell myself for it. I was just like, "I love this character so much. I want her to live." I just remember as … the casting process started, Issa and Prentice [Penny] called me in their office and they're just like, "You know you're Kelli, right?" And I burst into tears because I didn't see it coming.
Lauren Krenzel and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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