Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
In 2015, Natasha Rothwell took a trip to Ireland.
I was at some castle on some foggy hill, she says.
There was not another Black person in sight.
And then this Black family kind of emerges from the mist.
A mom, dad, and two kids.
I see them, we lock eyes, and I just walk up and hug them without speaking.
Belinda travels to the titular resort in Thailand to participate in a wellness-training program.
Rothwell assumed Belindas arc was over.
I was sated, she says.
I felt like,Yeah, thats her complete story.
Then, in 2022, White casually floated the idea of revisiting her character.
Rothwell lives not far from here.
I was not at all as prepared as I thought.
Her characters, including Belinda andInsecures hilariously uninhibited Kelli, are often frustratingly scarce within their respective series.
Of all the projects on my slate,How to Die Alonewas the priority, she says.
So despite the excitement aroundThe White Lotus,Belindas thwarted dreams are resonating with Rothwell more than shed like.
Rothwell honed her sense of humor growing up as a military brat.
Each move was an opportunity for reinvention.
She would be the quiet, mysterious kid, she says, or else the dependably nerdy study partner.
She dabbled with improv during college, and not long after graduating she moved to Tokyo to teach English.
In 2014, she auditioned forSaturday Night Livebecause the producers were actively looking for a Black woman.
They know that Im a multi-hyphenate.
From then on, she was more selective about pitching story lines for the character.
She did push back on one plot point toward the end of the series.
I did not like it, Rothwell says, laughing and shaking her head.
If I could take my ego off the table, it makes sense.
We sat down season one and went page by page with Belinda scenes.
Smaller flourishes of Rothwells also ended up in the script.
Neither Rothwell nor Belinda was a fan of the giant monitor lizard with whom her character shares a scene.
I am not a nature girlie.
Theres a lot more scrutiny.
OMG to Coolidge, who later messaged Rothwell Go get em, girl after her own return was announced.
White called Rothwell his foxhole buddy, relying on her experience as a showrunner.
It was a very brutal shoot, he says.
Natasha knew what I was dealing with.
I was in a place where Mel was, definitely, in my 20s and early 30s.
Now, in her 40s, shes working on being more visible and vulnerable.
She describes herself as neurospicy and was diagnosed with ADHD last year.
My parents werent anti-mental-health care, but it just wasnt a part of the conversation, she says.
I remember saying to my very first therapist, This is indulgent.
Shes fine with being single.
And Im not lonely.
She is working on an adaptation of the viral Reesa Teesa TikTok story Who TF Did I Marry.
Rothwell watched them and was inspired to negotiate for the rights to co-write and star.
Im super-excited to play with that, she says.
And she is heartened by the outpouring of support for Mel and the concern for Belindas fate.
Whats cool is that I play characters that people root for, she says.
So I feel like, cosmically, people are rooting for me.
Production Credits
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
