New Series ‘Not Dead Yet’ Shows That It’s Never Too Late, Says Star Gina Rodriguez

A decidedly unique presence in Gina Rodriguez’s life prepped her for her latest role, she says.

That project is Not Dead Yet, in which Rodriguez stars as Nell, a broke, newly single, self-described disaster. When Nell works to restart the career she left five years ago, she lands the only job she can find, writing obituaries. In her new role, Nell suddenly starts getting advice from some unlikely sources ­– the people she’s writing about.

The series also stars Hannah Simone, Lauren Ash, Rick Glassman, Angela Gibbs, and Josh Banday.

Glassman is the first to talk about his history with obits as he laughingly admits, “I grew up in a community where a lot of my neighbors would constantly read obituaries to find where to go to lunch. That’s for real. I grew up reading the things and getting some nice treats along the way.”

Executive Producer Casey Johnson says that when she and fellow EP David Windsor where writing the pilot they discovered that they both loved to read obituaries. “We didn’t know that about each other, and we’ve been writing together for over 20 years.”

It’s the narrative in each piece that appeals to the duo, she says, “Everyone has a story. Even the most ordinary-seeming person is fascinating if you just pay attention.”

She says that this is exactly how the creative crafted the characters’ stories, revealing, “There are some characters we have who lead extraordinary lives, and then there’s an ordinary mail carrier, who’s fascinating.”

To portray this wide range of people, the series’ cast guest includes Rhea Perlman, Paula Pell, Brittany Snow, Ed Begley, Jr, Julia Sweeney and Telma Hopkins, among others.

Creating the show during the pandemic proved tricky, says Windsor, explaining that the newspaper world was not one that he and Johnson were that familiar with and because of strict COIVD rules they weren’t able to actually spend time in a newsroom.

However, he says, “We wanted to make sure that made it accurate, so we had quite a few meetings with newspaper journalists and publishers to understand how their world worked, to see what it looked like. We’d never been inside of a newsroom, so we did a lot of research through them.”

The pair also spoke directly to an obituary writer as well, which they say was really helpful.

Rodriguez says that she connected with the concept because, “I have always felt like my ancestors have been present in my journey and taking care of me in those moments of fear or doubt. So, when I read this script, I was immediately attracted to this idea that when people pass, that they can come back and give you elements of knowledge that you wish you had or that you needed in the moment.”

She adds, “And, as we go on these journeys, who are we listening to, and who are we learning from? There’s this idea that we can learn from our ancestors and the people that have gone before us.”

Getting personal, she reveals, “My grandmother passed this summer, and I have never felt her presence more than I ever have in my life, through through this experience,” say says as she points to her pregnancy belly.

“I had an awesome spiritual baby shower, and my mom was very sad that my grandmother wasn’t there. ‘She’s supposed to be here,’ she kept saying. And I’m, like, ‘But she is. But she totally is.’”

Rodriguez says as she becomes a new mom she knows that she’s going to keep hearing her grandmother telling her, ‘I can do this. I can do this.’

Not Dead Yet is really a show about moving forward, says Rodriguez. “This show, to me, is an element of being able to have that kind of reflection in life with laughter and joy and friendship and how do we continue to grow in every age of our life, in every chapter of our life? Because I know I don’t want to stop growing, that’s for sure. I always want to be a student. I really like being a part of a project that helps us all take a second and be, like, ‘What can I learn? What can I grow from? Let me rise above blame, shame, or guilt, and let me blossom,’ because it’s never too late.”

‘Not Dead Yet’ premieres Wednesday, February 8^th at 8:30e/p on ABC and is available for streaming on Hulu.