Natasha Rothwell, star of the third season of HBO’s hit black-comedy series “The White Lotus,” understands firsthand how powerful representation can be in the luxury travel space.
Speaking to NPR recently, the 44-year-old actress shared that her obsession with Black travel began long before her character Belinda ever arrived at “The White Lotus.”
“I’m obsessed sort of with Black travel. I remember traveling when I was real, real broke, and seeing a Black person sitting in first class when I was on my way to coach. And it subconsciously let me know that I should be able to do that, that I could do that, that I belonged in that space,” Rothwell noted.
Rothwell’s character Belinda has her own similar experience this season on the show. She is dining one evening while in Thailand when she sees a Black couple at another table.
“When I was talking to [Mike White, the show’s creator] about that moment and pitching it, I was just like, I want Belinda to have an interaction where she sees the potential of what could be,” the “How to Die Alone” star explained. “You know, she’s there flirting with being a guest anyway because she’s doing her workshop and, you know, classes by day, but she’s truly cosplaying what it might be like to be in that space, and no one questioning why she’s there.”
She added, “And so I get excited when I see Black people traveling, especially luxury travel because I think it’s something that is not shown a lot on television … So much of what I’ve aspired to be and do is a consequence of representation.”
Rothwell cited the late actress Nell Carter in the show “Gimmie a Break!” as one of her inspirations.
“I was like, oh, she’s a fatty baddie. She’s on this show, and she’s running s—. I want to do that,” she said. “I would not have known to aspire [to] that if I had not seen her. And I feel travel does the same thing in real life.”
Taking that into consideration, Rothwell said, that though the scene was initially longer, she was “glad” her scene with the Black couple made it into the show.
“I had a longer scene with them, so it was definitely just truncated to the glance because — and this is Mike’s genius — that glance did more than the scene ever did,” she noted.
Rothwell, who also starred in the first season, has returned for the third season of the anthology show, which follows the goings-on, both good and not-so-good, of the guests and staff at a fictional luxury hotel chain. This time, the show is set at White Lotus resort in Thailand. Rothwell’s character Belinda is embracing some Main Character Energy this season, among other things.
“She’s going to be a guest for the first time, even though she’s taking classes and it’s a work trip,” Rothwell said in an interview ahead of the season premiere. “She’s staying at the hotel, which is something that she hasn’t done before, and so we get to see her really dip her toe in the other side of life of the upstairs/downstairs of White Lotus.”
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streams on HBO Max.
