Natasha Rothwell is raring to deliver Reesa Teesa’s viral multi-part TikTok series to the display screen — however not for the explanations you may suppose.
The actress tells PEOPLE she was “tagged in so many movies” associated to the sequence whereas she was in Thailand filming season 3 of The White Lotus.
Her cellphone was blowing up, but it surely wasn’t till one in every of her cousins despatched her a “doctored up film cowl of me in Who TF Did I Marry?” that she mentioned, “‘I bought to see what that is about.'”
“I binged it on web site,” Rothwell, 43, admits of Tareasa “Reesa Teesa” Johnson’s jarring 52-part sequence about her tumultuous marriage and divorce from a person she refers to as Legion.
Rothwell says that her first thought after watching the sequence — which has amassed greater than 6 million views on every of the 52 movies — was not, “Oh, how do I make this into one thing?” As a substitute, she was pondering, “‘I wish to do every little thing in my energy to assist this girl get her flowers,’ as a result of it was essentially the most susceptible act of honesty [and] radical vulnerability that I might ever seen.”
The actress says that there have been “very aggressive” negotiations taking place in Hollywood concerning the story, however her representatives inspired her to fulfill with Johnson to share her imaginative and prescient for the sequence.
“It was not her trauma that me and [made me] wish to throw my hat within the ring, it was her — who she is as an individual, how she survived all of it — and viral fame, how she’s surviving that. I used to be like, ‘Oh, now that is once I lean in.'”
Her expertise over practically eight years engaged on How to Die Alone — the Hulu sequence she created, produced and stars in that premiered earlier this month — influenced how she navigated the assembly.
“Everybody in Hollywood was combating to get it, and I believe I took the identical strategy I did with How one can Die Alone, the place it is similar to — if it is meant to be, it can occur.”
Her technique paid off. “I bought the decision from my workforce, [and they said], ‘She particularly needs to work with you. You noticed her within the assembly. She felt seen. It wasn’t opportunistic.'”
The previous Saturday Night Live author says she was “so honored” Johnson selected her, and when the sequence was introduced on Sept. 4, the TikToker wrote in a post that she’s “BEYOND excited to work with THE Natasha Rothwell” — so the sensation is clearly mutual.
The pair met up for the primary time in individual for dinner earlier this month, and Rothwell says they felt “like twins” proper off the bat.
“We have been simply in such a mutual love bubble of simply having fun with one another and understanding one another and studying about one another,” she gushes.
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By way of the precise logistics of the undertaking although, Rothwell says it is nonetheless in “a really nascent stage.”
“However I am undoubtedly excited to strategy her story in a 360 [degree] approach and never simply…retell the story we have all consumed. I believe she’s way more fascinating than what has occurred to her.”