(Photo: Lara Solanki | Credit: ABC)
Premieres February 8th on ABC 8:30 p.m. ET/PT
Gina Rodriguez is the star and Executive Producer of ABC’s comedy series, Not Dead Yet (debuting February 8), playing Nell Serrano, a woman attempting to jump start her life and the career she left behind five years earlier. “Nell is a self-described disaster, says Rodriguez. Returning to the newspaper she used to work for, she lands the only position available…writing obituaries. “She’s just ended a five-year relationship and is broke. Her life becomes complicated by a job she didn’t even want when Nell begins getting life advice from the dead people she’s writing about.”
Marking Gina Rodriguez’s first television series since her Golden Globe-winning five-year run on CW’s Jane the Virgin (2014-19), Not Dead Yet, adapted from Alexandra Potter‘s book, Confessions of a 40-Something F**k Up, also stars Hannah Simone (New Girl), Lauren Ash (Superstore), Rick Glassman (As We See It), Joshua Banday (Upload), and Angela Gibbs (Hacks, Black Jesus).
When asked how it feels being an Executive Producer on the series, she explains, “Well, in real life, I am about to have a baby. I accidentally got pregnant right before the show started. My husband and I were very excited about it, but it wasn’t planned. I was so afraid.” Rodriguez explained to Dean, their pilot director, the situation and that she was not about to get any smaller, on the contrary. “He just smiled and told me, ‘You are pregnant. You are a miracle. Just live in it, and we’ll figure it out.’ And they did.”
Dean Holland, also an Executive Producer, helped craft the show. “We came up with very creative ways to cover the belly, whether it was costumes or her office cubicle.” “They used plants, even a refrigerator,” quipped Gibbs, who plays Cricket, the widow of Nell’s first obituary subject, and who befriends Nell. “The directors were ingenious.”
Another ingenious aspect of this series is the built-in need to have guest stars in each episode to play the recently deceased who interact with Nell. “Oh, we have so many incredible people, Rodriguez exclaims. “We have Rhea Perlman, Paula Pell, Ed Begley, Jr., Telma Hopkins, Brittany Snow, Julia Sweeney and more to come. We got very lucky.”
Executive Producer, Casey Johnson, who co-wrote the pilot with Holland talked about the writing process, “During our writing sessions, we sort of discovered that we both always loved to read obituaries. Even the most ordinary-seeming person is fascinating if you just pay attention. And so that’s something we love about these characters. There are some people who lead extraordinary lives. Our guest stars have so much to work with in playing them.”
Rodriguez connected with her character on a family level. “My fascination with the people who came before me in my family is one of the reasons I connected with this show so much,” she explained. “I have always felt like my ancestors have been around, have been with me, have been present in my journey, taking care of me in those moments of fear or doubt.”
As far as what we can expect from her character, Rodriguez had quite a lot to say, “You might meet some of Nell’s family. But it’s more about me playing a person going through an experience of establishing her identity. For sure, she can never deny her roots, but it’s not the plot. I’ve been deconstructing my identity for the past eight months, and I am nothing. I’m just dust, guys. It’s great to play somebody who gets to fail but also gets to learn from her failures. It’s really cool to be playing this role at a time when I’m continuously unraveling and rebuilding myself.”
Rodriguez has had an adventurous life. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest daughter of Puerto Rican parents. At the age of seven, Rodriguez performed at the salsa dance company, Fantasia Juvenil. She focused on salsa dancing until age 17 when she began acting. She went on to voice the title character of the Netflix animated action adventure series, Carmen Sandiego and portrayed Frida Kahlo in the world premiere of Casa Blue in the United Kingdom.
When asked if the Latino culture she grew up with is present in Nell’s life in the series, Rodriguez retorts, “It’s impossible for it to not. I’m always Latina. It’s so much of my identity. I have writers that are creating a woman and her experience, a human, and I always bring something of myself to everything I play.”
Hannah Simone, who plays Sam the editor of the Life & Style section of the newspaper interjects, “I think it’s kind of groundbreaking and refreshing that you have this show with these three women at the top of the call sheet. But this is not a show that’s about women. You have two women at the top of this call sheet who are women of color. But it’s not a show about being any particular ethnicity. That’s usually how it was in the past. You always had to explain yourself or define the show by those identities.”
Not Dead Yet premieres with back-to-back episodes Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. The series will be available to stream on Hulu from Feb 8.
