How To Die Alonefollows Mel, a lonely employee of JFK airport who is stuck in a rut in her life, having never experienced love and given up on any dreams she may have. Everything changes when a near-death experience forces her to reevaluate her life, opening her eyes to endless possibilities. Mel takes charge of her life and refuses to settle for anything less than the life she wants and deserves, even as obstacles pop up in front of her.
How To Die Aloneis co-created by Natasha Rothwell (Wonka,Sonic the Hedgehog 2), who also stars in the series, and Vera Santamaria (BoJack Horseman,Orange Is The New Black). Rothwell leads a phenomenally funny cast which includes Conrad Ricamora (Fire Island,How To Get Away With Murder) and Jocko Sims (New Amsterdam,Last Ship).How To Die Alonestrikes the perfect balance between deeply funny comedy with internal moments of an existential emotional journey and characters that audiences can engage with.
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Screen Rantinterviewed Vera Santamaria about hernew Hulu comedy seriesHow To Die Alone. She broke down what her extensive experience in comedy television series brought to the series and how she balanced humor with serious emotional themes. Santamaria also shared how she hopes the series impacts audiences, and what setting the series in JFK airport added to the story.
Vera Santamaria Did A Deep Dive Into Mel & Her Flaws For How To Die Alone
“Bringing more that was maybe internal and making it external and truly making Mel a little more flawed.”
Screen Rant: Vera, I love this show. Absolutely incredible. I feel that Mel is one of the most relatable characters that I’ve seen in such a long time, and she has such an inspirational journey. How did you and Natasha Rothwell collaborate on creating Mel’s character and her journey of self-discovery?
Vera Santamaria: I started off with what she had in the original DNA of her script, which is she wanted to do this very specific exploration, and I think she would say so herself that the thing I brought to it was diving deeper. Bringing more that was maybe internal and making it external and truly making Mel a little more flawed.
Because Natasha herself is such a powerhouse together person, and so it was kind of pulling from a part of her life that was maybe more in her early twenties where kind of mistakes were made and pulling from those corners of your life that you’d rather forget just to verify that Mel was flawed and was making mistakes that kind of made us want to look away.
I think that to me is a part of my favorite characters, so it really was a little bit of me poking and prodding and going into that corner of your life where you’re like, don’t look there. I was like, yeah, but let’s look there because that’s the piece that we all relate to.
This show’s hilarious, but it also deals with some pretty serious themes. We talk about self-worth personal growth, mortality, love. How do you balance the show’s comedic element with the more serious introspective moments, especially considering Mel’s life-changing journey?
Vera Santamaria: I think we had the ace in the hole that is Natasha Rothwell. I think knowing that she’s going to be the person performing all these very delicate moments you know that she can pull off comedy and drama in the same breath. So when you have that piece, it really frees you up to write what you want and kind of reflect.
I think what people are saying is it feels like real life. We’ve all had that moment where something amazing and something horrible happens at the same time. I think just knowing that she was the person who was going to be saying these words, embodying this character, that’s what made it kind of [so we were] able to walk that very delicate tone.
How To Die Alone Co-Showrunner Hopes It “Makes You Approach The World A Little More Kindly”
I love that this is set at JFK airport. I’m a frequent flyer, and it’s interesting to see an inside look at some of the workers that are there because for the most part, they do almost go unseen. Now as a co-showrunner, what was your approach to building the world around Mel, particularly the setting of the JFK airport?
Vera Santamaria: Yeah. I think the thing that I did was pull more of her original show into the airport. I kind of knew that the airport would be a central part of the show, and if that was going to be the case, and we wanted to really set a lot of scenes there, we were going to have to bring her love interest into the workplace as opposed to maybe being in an apartment in Queens sort of thing.
So what we did was really build upon what the airport has in itself, which is that it’s a community unto its own. You have the traveling people, but then you have the people who are moving luggage or making the food. There’s so much going on there. So really building out that world and showing the unseen parts of JFK, I was able to pull from my own life.
I have several family members who work at airports, and I know there’s a whole underworld there that never gets talked about, so that was really kind of my main M.O. in making sure that we had a really robust workplace where we could set many, many scenes and have many, many interactions.
As I said before, I think that Mel is such a relatable character. What do you hope viewers take away with Mel’s story, particularly in regards to the themes of self-worth and personal growth?
Vera Santamaria: I’m hoping that people see this as a show that is original and singular in voice. I want people to kind of walk away continuing to think about the show, thinking that they’ve laughed really hard, but that there’s been a theme explored where they’re still kind of thinking about it.
That to me is the best thing that can happen when you watch a TV show is that it kind of shifts your mind, makes you see people differently, makes you approach the world a little more kindly sometimes. That to me would be my greatest hope for when people watch the show.
“Envy Is A Very Valuable Emotion” When Following One’s Dreams
Mel is described as someone who has forgotten, had a dream, what advice would you give people who may feel similar in their own lives?
Vera Santamaria: Oh, that’s a good question. I think sometimes this is kind of strange advice, but we’ve all experienced envy, and I think envy is a very valuable emotion because sometimes it tells you, I’m envious of that thing because secretly I want it, but I’m not dreaming big enough to really achieve that thing that person might have.
Sometimes I think we cast some emotions as bad hideaway emotions. I might say, if you’ve forgotten how to dream big, I would say maybe look at those things that sometimes you’re like, I wish I had that, or Why does that person have that? That might be a good hint as to something that deep down you want.
Sometimes it’s just the emotion of envy, and that’s fine too. But I think really following that thing that we cast away is like, Ooh, that’s a feeling I shouldn’t have. But it’s like, well, ask yourself why are you having that feeling? Maybe that person has that thing that you are too afraid to say that you want.
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.
