Meet Your Maker: How “When Harry Met Sally” influenced Natasha Rothwell’s comedy “How to Die Alone”

The creator and star of the Hulu comedy shares the advice Issa Rae gave her.

How to Die Alone was not going to die. Not if Natasha Rothwell could help it.

The Insecure star first began working on it in 2016 and carried it across two development deals before it landed at Hulu. "There are many opportunities that I was given to walk away from it, but something in me told me that this had to be born and see the light of day, so I’m glad I didn’t give up,” Rothwell tells Entertainment Weekly.

The show’s journey mirrors airport employee Mel’s (played by Rothwell, who also serves as creator and co-showrunner). We meet Mel as a single woman who yearns to be seen yet is stunted by a fear of putting herself out there. “That tension exists in a lot of people, particularly being plus size and brown,” Rothwell explains. It takes a near-death experience for her to re-examine what the hell she is doing and begin stepping towards the full life she truly desires.

Related: How Natasha Rothwell's Belinda can return for The White Lotus season 3

“It’s the most vulnerable piece of art I’ve put into the world. I really didn’t pull any punches,” she says of the comedy that is equal parts humor and heart. How to Die Alone aims to explore the “very nuanced difference between being alone and being lonely.”

Rothwell is stepping into a new stage of her career as creator, so EW spoke to her about the stories and storytellers who influenced her.

When Harry Met Sally

Rothwell is a lover of rom-coms, so it’s no surprise that she was influenced by one of the most iconic movies of the genre: When Harry Met Sally. Getting to see the pair discover their love over a decade in the 1989 classic made it feel like more than the average love story to a young Rothwell. “It was complicated because it's written by the beautiful Nora Ephron,” she says, “I was so moved by it and I’ve always been impressed by the ability to tell a love story in an unconventional way.” She also hopes to use an unconventional approach in telling Mel’s story. “It’s not a romantic love story, but it’s a princess saving herself and falling in love herself,” she teases.

Nell Carter

What the late Nell Carter brought to television during the six seasons of NBC sitcom Gimme A Break! left a lasting impact on Rothwell. “[It] was one of the first shows where I saw a plus-size Black woman in charge and owning her body, her beauty, and she wasn’t the butt of the joke,” she says about the sitcom about a housekeeper for a widowed police chief and his three daughters, “I remember watching when I was little and thinking here’s space in this world for people who look like me, so it was impactful in lighting the fire.”

The Breakfast Club

The How to Die Alone creator and star loves misfits. “I find myself playing characters that are left of center and more than what they seem. It’s such a cool way to meet archetypes and discover that they’re more than what you see,” she says. One collection of misfits she was inspired by are the students of 1985 coming-of-age tale The Breakfast Club.

Related: Natasha Rothwell shares her pop culture Must List, from Hamilton to When Harry Met Sally

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

We love to see our friends win and that’s how Rothwell feels about beloved multi-hyphenate Phoebe Waller-Bridge. “[She] did something really incredible with Fleabag. It originated as a one-woman show and the journey of its evolution to performance for screen and how unapologetic it was, especially [how it gave] zero f---s in terms of Western ideals, meaning it stopped after two seasons because it was done,” she says of the popular series. Rothwell, like many of its viewers, praises Waller-Bridge’s writing and acting.

In fact, Rothwell worked with the Fleabag creator in 2016 when this project began. “Then she had to go and become famous and she couldn’t stay with the project, but her sensibilities and willingness to break form really spoke to me,” she says about the experience.

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Tennessee Williams

Prolific playwright Tennessee Williams’ work was a huge part of Rothwell’s college experience. She looks back on doing “old school actor script work” and being amazed by the amount of subtext in his work. “I was really impressed by how much was said without using a lot of words. The economy of language got so much across and I was definitely inspired by him,” she shares.

Issa Rae

As Kelli Prenny on Insecure, Rothwell made all of us laugh on a weekly basis. In addition to playing the breakout character, she wrote the HBO comedy, so she got to watch up close as series creator Issa Rae created her company and expanded her empire. “I’m sure there were natural fears, but there was this confidence where she backed herself so fully,” she says about working with Rae.

Related: Crew Love: Saying goodbye to Issa Rae's Insecure

One lesson Rothwell definitely learned from Rae? Delegate. "The main piece of advice she did explicitly give was to hire amazing people. You want to surround yourself with people that you know will make you better. I did exactly that and got the right result,” she says.

Mike White

Like many, Rothwell has been a fan of Mike White’s for a long time. She saw how brilliant a storyteller he was by watching projects like Freaks and Geeks, The Good Girl, and Beatriz at Dinner, and then got to work with him on The White Lotus. “It’s been a dream come true to watch him work,” she says, “I’ve so appreciated his work ethic and his commitment to protecting his story.”

How to Die Alone premieres Sept. 13 on Hulu.

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