Hulu’s new comedyHow To Die Alonepremiered its first 4 episodes on September 13, and the storyline has already proven to be far from the usual 30-something fare. Protagonist Mel is an airport employee (at JFK, no less!) who is afraid of flying, and her social life reflects how stuck she feels. After receiving an invitation to her ex-fling’s wedding in Maui and getting ditched by her best friend on her birthday, Mel experiences a life-altering brush with death that has her rethinking everything.
The series was co-created by Natasha Rothwell (Wonka,Sonic The Hedgehog 2), who also stars as Mel, and Vera Santamaria (BoJack Horseman,Pen15), who serves as one of the showrunners. The ensemble that surrounds her includes Conrad Ricamora (Fire Island,How To Get Away With Murder), Jocko Sims (New Amsterdam,The Last Ship), KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Michelle McLeod, and more. While Mel begins the show feeling all alone, each episode peels back another layer of her life and reveals how much more support she than she thinks — both inside and out.
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Screen Rant interviewed Bashir Salahuddin, who plays Mel’s estranged older brother Brian, about his experience on the set ofHow To Die Alone. The actor explained how personal the fraying familial bonds feel to both him and Rothwell, praised the dynamic writing and directing of the show, and began manifesting one of his own future dream roles.
Bashir Salahuddin Breaks Down The Complexity Of How To Die Alone’s Family Relationships
“I know what it’s like when somebody can get under your skin in a way that will drive you crazy. Let’s explore that."
Screen Rant: I loveHow to Die Alone. I think it’s the perfect balance of comedy and heartfelt moments that explore themes of self-discovery. Tell me a little bit about Brian and his relationship with his sister, Mel.
Bashir Salahuddin: It’s interesting. Before we even shot, Natasha [Rothwell] poured so much of her heart and soul into this show. I think it’ll be obvious. I think that’s why anybody who watches her is immediately in love. I’ve been a fan of her since I saw her do the characters on Netflix, and she is just that rare and unique person who’s really blessed in the game.
We had this great conversation about how, even if you’re the most relaxed, fool, calm, chill, level-headed person in the world, there’s probably somebody in your family who can get under your g–damn skin in a way that will make you lose logic and that will make you start saying crazy s–t. You’re contradicting yourself, but you don’t care; you’re just going to win the argument in this moment. That is a relationship that I have personally seen.
I have seven siblings, so I promise you each of those relationships is different. Each one has its own positives and has its own challenges, and that’s something that Natasha wanted to bring to this relationship. To say, “Hey, I know what it’s like to have a complicated relationship with a family member. I know what it’s like when somebody can get under your skin in a way that will drive you crazy. Let’s explore that.”
We both were bringing so much personal experience into it, and I do think that when people watch it, it will hopefully feel real as hell. Because it’s coming from a very real place.
Screen Rant: Can you talk about how the relationship between Brian and Mel evolves in season 1? And how do their relationships with their mother differ?
Bashir Salahuddin: Yeah, let’s start with the mother relationship. I think the mother relationship is in some ways a source of pressure for Mel. It’s a source of pressure about her health. It’s a source of pressure about her romantic life, right? It’s a source of pressure about her financial life. For Brian, it’s a source of pressure about his past choices. It’s a source of pressure about, quite frankly, whether he’s man enough.
Also, we know that his relationship with his father was complicated to the point where he’s still grieving Dad. But then you have Mom, who’s there adding this pressure of, “Well, what kind of dad are you?? It’s a lot to play, and I do think both characters are beset with all the stuff that they’ve been carrying. There’s all this baggage they’ve been carrying in all these years, and the one person that they should show grace toward — the one person who understands better than anyone what they’re going through — is the one person with whom they have the most rancor.
Luckily, Natasha is just showing you where things start. I do think that, over the course of the season, you slowly begin to see how each one lets the other in more. It’s not just about saying, “Hey, we could be better brother and sister,” but it’s about saying, “Hey, we’ve had great times together. We have been a good brother and sister, and perhaps we can find our way back to that.” They haven’t always been at each other’s throats like this; they even find some things they used to love together as kids.
It’s such a great and rich excavation of a relationship, and so I do think the hope and goal is that we take the audience on the journey of discovery. They’ll really realize that, in any relationship, no matter how mucked up it is, there are always those little doorways and windows that you’re able to go through to find a new place to be happy together.
Natasha Rothwell Is A Dream Collaborator In How To Die Alone
“It felt a little bit like being John Coltrane playing with Miles Davis on Kind of Blue.”
Screen Rant: What’s been the most rewarding aspect of playing Brian in a series that explores themes of self-discovery and resilience?
Bashir Salahuddin: I look at it more from the acting standpoint, because I just like the fact that he’s complicated. I love when I can play a good guy who’s supportive and helpful and smiles all the time and does the right thing, but I also did a movie called Miller’s Girl that was about really inappropriate relationships. As an actor, you want that challenge. You want the hard stuff. If you’re the 1992 New York Knicks, you want to face the Bulls, man. You want to go against the best!
I’m grateful that when I read this script, it wasn’t just another wishy-washy, throwaway character. It’s in fact one of the most complicated, difficult characters. We haven’t seen a lot of characters like that, especially in comedies. Sometimes, characters can just there to deliver something for the main characters. “Your job is to just be mean, so we can see this part of the main character. Your job is to just be aloof,” or whatever. But in this one, it was like, “No, your job is to be a deeply rich human being,” and I think that is something that I savored. I savored the hell out of that.
Screen Rant: I love the conversations that your character has with Mel, especially when they’re at the bar and reliving their old childhood experiences. Can you talk about working with Natasha as a collaborator on this project, and what you wanted to bring to the role of Brian that wasn’t on the page?
Bashir Salahuddin: Wow, that’s great. I think the thing that she brought to the role of Brian was me. Let’s be frank, Natasha is somebody who a lot of folks in Hollywood have been dying to see what she’s going to do when she strikes out on her own. She’s already a scene stealer in so many shows and movies, so what is her own show going to look like?
I was one of those people. I’m a fan first. But then she reached out to me and said she was a fan of my work. She said, “For this complicated relationship where we go head to head, I want it to be you.” I was kind of floored, like, “Holy crap, all right.” But at the same time — let me literally toot my own horn — it felt a little bit like being John Coltrane playing with Miles Davis on “Kind of Blue.” You know what I’m saying?
I know what I bring to the table. I know how much energy and effort I’ve been putting into my craft since I was probably 18, doing deep long theater intensives and countless hours of workshops and tons of classes and black box theater and off-off-off Broadway and all this other stuff. But I have this education, and I bring all that stuff to bear. Then, of course, Natasha brings a completely rich talent set. To be able to play off of her? It kind of feels like jazz.
It was so beautiful, and our director Tiffany not only allowed us to have a lot of breath in our takes, she also had us rehearse beforehand. Which is something that often you don’t get time to do because, let’s be real, TV budgets and schedules are tight. But they made time and said, “This is important.” I was really grateful that we got a chance to really say, “Hey, this is going to be a big deal. This is going to be a great moment, so let’s really make sure we indulge in it.”
Bashir Salahuddin Campaigns For X-Men & Offers Life Advice
“Every step you take toward your success? It takes a step toward you.”
Screen Rant: Sidenote. Is that aBishop from X-Menshirt that you have on there?
Bashir Salahuddin: Quiet campaign. I’m not saying anything; I’m just rocking it. [Laughs] Actually, this was a crew shirt for my show South Side, where each of the crew people wanted to be X-Men, and then they said, “Hey, do you want a shirt? Which character do you want?” And I was like, “Lemme think about it for 0.5 seconds…”
Hollywood! I know Disney’s a big Screen Rant fan, so if they’re reading, come on!
Screen Rant: Bashir, you would make a great Bishop! Last question: Mel is described as someone who has forgotten how to dream. What advice would you give to people who may feel similarly in their own lives?
Bashir Salahuddin: Man, that’s a good question. If you’ve forgotten how to dream, I feel like the best way forward is to begin to have a conversation with yourself and ask yourself where you are. Then ask how far that is away from where you want to be, and figure out if you’re even walking in the right direction. I think if you can do that work, if you can sit down with yourself and say, “I’m facing North, but I really want to be facing West,” you’re taking steps toward your success.
Here’s the thing people don’t understand about your destiny, your passion, and your success. Every step you take toward your success? It takes a step toward you. It’s not you moving towards it. It’s actually both of you moving together. But if you stop moving, it stops moving, right? So, that’s the answer. You’ve got to just verify that you’re moving, because a lot of times we get in a rut, and we’re facing in the wrong direction for where we want to be.
That’s happened to me. There’ve been times in my life when I was so far away from being a writer and an actor, which is what I wanted so badly. There were times when I was a substitute teacher just trying to pay bills, and so I had to have that conversation with myself and begin to do things, whether it be late-night theater classes or theater projects. Anything I could do to take a step towards my dream and to let my dream take a step towards me.
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.
Check out our otherHow To Die Aloneinterviews here:
The first 4 episodes ofHow To Die Aloneare streaming now on Hulu, with new episodes dropping every Friday.
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.
