Mel is stuck in a runt working at JFK with no romantic life and no other plans or prospects for her future inHow To Die Alone. However, after facing her own mortality, everything changes. Mel decides to take risks and strive to discover the life she wants and deserves in a journey of self-discovery and worth.
Natasha Rothwell (Wonka,Sonic The Hedgehog 2) took inspiration from her own life and therapeutic journey to createHow To Die Alonewith co-creator Vera Santamaria (BoJack Horseman,Pen15). The cast includes Conrad Ricamora (Fire Island,How To Get Away With Murder) and Jocko Sims (New Amsterdam,The Last Ship), who deliver performances full of comedy and pathos. The series strikes the perfect balance between uproariously funny humor and a deep emotional journey of self-worth.
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Screen RantinterviewedHow To Die Alonestar Conrad Ricamora. He explained how he andRothwell are kindred spiritsand why it was so easy to build a friendship with her both on and off-screen. Ricamora also shared how he looked at some of his friends for inspiration when crafting his character and how this show changed his perspective on certain aspects of the world.
Conrad, I loveHow To Die Alone. There’s something in this for everybody, and I think Mel is such a relatable character. Rory and Mel’s friendship feel so real and lived in to me. Tell us a little bit about Rory and his friendship and bond with Mel.
Conrad Ricamora: You get what is on the page, but when I first met Natasha, I felt like I’ve known her for decades my whole life. And funny story, because we are friends now. We were talking, we found out that both of our dads are Air Force, we’re Air Force brats, and she went to a high school that was only a few miles away from my high school in Florida, and we didn’t even know it.
So we probably crossed paths without knowing it when we were both in high school. So yeah, there is this weird, strange universe energy thing that I think that was pulling us together. And so there’s that. But then also, I mean, I feel like I was able to relate to Rory and Mel’s friendship right away because I was that messy gay guy in my twenties and in my thirties, if I’m being honest, who was trying desperately to find love in the world.
Whether it was from friends or from a relationship, but not being, especially in the relationship part, not being successful, and then commiserating with my girlfriends at the time of like, oh, guys suck. At least we have each other. I did that for two solid decades until I just got married two years ago to a guy that I met the first week we started shooting this in Toronto.
That’s amazing. Now Rory is Mel’s only real friend at the start of the series. How much pressure does that put on Rory, and how do we see their friendship kind of evolve from that?
Conrad Ricamora: I think that anybody is doomed from the beginning when you don’t have multiple sources of support in your life. So yeah, I think that that’s a time we see that unfortunately play out with Rory and Mel, that it was bound to break at some point.
The truth that happens with friends, again, I can relate to this, is where you have great times together, you find comfort in each other, but at some point you do have to call each other out on each other’s shit. You have to be like, Hey, you keep making the same mistake over and over again, and I can’t keep watching you do it. So here’s what it is.
And then your friend is then like, okay, well if you’re going to tell me the truth, then I’m going to tell you the truth about you and whether that friendships can survive. That is a true test of whether those friendships were meant to be in my experience and I’m really rooting for Mel and Rory.
“People that work at the airport, the last thing they want to do is go travel.”
I love the fact that this is kind of set at the JFK airport because I feel like I’ve known a lot of friends that worked at airports. There’s subcultures that go on there and little things that people just don’t know about. How does that location shape Mel’s experience and journey throughout the course of the series?
Conrad Ricamora: Well, I think it constantly makes you a little bit bitter when you are working at a place where people are traveling off to live like their best lives. Especially for somebody like Mel who’s afraid to fly. I think that can create a sense of bitterness and a sense of just dreaming about the life that you want instead of actually living the life that you want.
I can imagine that people that work at the airport, the last thing they want to do is go travel, go through an airport when that’s their everyday experience. So yeah, I think that subculture can be its own little trap in itself. But I also think that there’s so many interesting things to mine from that as well.
Now since we shot the show, I’ve never been able to walk through an airport the same way again, things that I took for granted because when we all go to the airport, we’re all so in a rush. We’re anxious. And now I’m like, oh, I know what’s going on behind the scenes. I know what’s happening at Hudson News. So it’s definitely opened my eyes.
Thinking of adopted friends, he explains that “they realize at some point that they actually aren’t white.”
This show does really well is dive into the family dynamics and your character, Rory is not immune to that. Can you talk about his relationship with his father in the show?
Conrad Ricamora: I think when I was preparing for the role and thinking about Rory’s circumstances of being an Asian boy adopted by a rich upper East Side white family, I don’t think that Rory’s ever felt like he’s belonged in this world, in the world that he grew up in. And that has strained and damaged his relationship with his adopted father who I think loves him and wants the best for him, but doesn’t understand him.
I think it’s an interesting dynamic because I have some friends that are adopted that are also Asian people adopted by white American families that then grew up with this like, oh, they realize at some point that they actually aren’t white. They think because everybody around them growing up is white, [so are they].
And so I think that there’s an interesting thing when adopted families don’t allow their Asian kids to explore their Asian identity and don’t nurture that. That creates a lot of confusion, I think, when those kids grow up and become adults and realize, wait, I have this whole other culture that I was not exposed to. That can create a lot of confusion and resentment.
Mel is described as someone who’s forgotten how to dream, what advice would you give to people who may feel similarly in their own lives?
Conrad Ricamora: Oh, this is corny, but I would say there’s this book called The Artist’s Way that I got. I’ve done it, well, probably two times from front to back. That really opened me up to the beauty in the world and living the life that I wanted to live.
So journaling, putting your thoughts down on paper and instead of just reacting to the world, becoming aware of the ways that you’re reacting to the world. That allows you to then actually make choices on how you react. But you have to become aware of the way that you’re reacting first. Hopefully it’s before a piece of IKEA furniture falls on you.
More About How To Die Alone Season 1
Melissa is a neurotic fat black woman who has never been in love, but after a brush with death she refuses to settle for anything less than the life she wants, leading her to become “that bitch” no matter what.
How To Die Alone
Cast
A down-on-her-luck JFK airport employee who’s never been in love and is struggling to find motivation gets a new lease on life and newfound determination after a near-death experience.
