James Salzano
June 01, 2017
In The Mix

One for One

Ann Farmer

In Amazon Studios’ One Mississippi, the stepfather character, Bill, is so obsessive-compulsive that, during his wife’s funeral, he spots the sign-in pen slightly askew and cannot resist precisely aligning it to the condolence book.

“He keeps a tight lid on himself,” says John Rothman, who plays Bill and devised that artful touch. Rothman, in fact, became so enmeshed in his character’s idiosyncrasies that one day he caught himself in his own kitchen “lining up the coffee cups with all the handles going in the same direction.”

One Mississippi plays with order and disorder in people’s lives. The show’s writer, executive producer and star, comedian Tig Notaro, mined her own life for the premise: in the space of one year, a lesbian radio host loses her mother, her two breasts to cancer, and is diagnosed with C. diff , a bacterium that causes chronic diarrhea. She travels from L.A. to her hometown in Mississippi for the funeral only to be reminded of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

For Rothman, it’s the first time in his career to be showcased in a primary recurring role. “My theme is, it’s never too late,” says the actor, who has appeared in scores of films and TV shows, beginning in 1980 as a pretentious screenwriter in Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories .

Maybe because of that launching, “There is a stereotype that I try to work against,” he says.

Repeatedly cast as “a kind of pompous guy” (the uptight librarian in the original Ghostbusters and, again, in Sophie’s Choice), he’s tapped for judges, accountants and doctors. They don’t always get much screen time, but Rothman injects each with memorable nuance.

This time, though, Rothman gets to serve as a muse to the writers penning the second season of One Mississippi, premiering in September. It began at the audition, when he reached for the script but Notaro stopped him.

“She said, ‘You don’t have to look at the script. You are Bill,’” he recounts, with obvious happiness. “I’ve had great jobs,” he says. “But this is what you want.”


This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 5, 2017

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