LA: I mean, from experience I’d say, you don’t want the Hugh Grant, you don’t want that character.

NR: Okay. That’s fair. That’s fair.

LA: I have to ask, how was it landing jokes to a crowd in Tokyo?

NR: I love this question.

LA: Where the culture is so different, the language is so different. How do you read the room? How do you figure out the humor of a place that you’ve just moved to?

NR: Yeah. It was the best experience in universal humor. And I’d moved there from DC. I’d spent a couple of years post-grad doing comedy in DC and there are all these niche government jokes that you can make in DC and you try to do that on a stage in front of an audience that’s filled with expats from all of the English-speaking countries, not just the US, you realize very quickly how thin those jokes can be. And what it did, it allowed me to sort of explore universal truths. What is inherently funny about how we relate to each other. And an example is status, right? When you have a servant that is smarter than the master, that’s a classic trope. It works in every language. And so you’re able to really dissect comedy down to its sort of fundamental parts.

LA: There are certainly some of those universal truths in White Lotus. I think that’s why it’s done so well in the US and abroad.

NR: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I do like to travel solo. I am the type of person that to recharge, I need to be alone. And so I also love being near water where I can see it. I don’t necessarily need a beach vacation, but where the sea meets the mountain, I’ll take that. I get a lot of peace by being near the ocean. I also love being able to just, there’s a peace that comes from detaching from being constantly on my phone. And definitely that silent retreat brought to light a bit of an addiction. So traveling, while I’m not completely offline.

LA: Where do you like to explore beyond being near the water?

NR: Museums. I am, again, fully a nerd, and I love educational trips. So when I am on a trip with a bunch of my girlfriends, they’re like, “Let’s go to this club. Let’s go to this bar.” And I’m like, “I’d like to go to the Assisi and I want to see the private tour of the upper library.”

LA: You’re like, “I can’t stay out late. I have to be fresh for the Assisi.”

NR: That’s exactly right. And I’ve always been fascinated by history and documentary. And so wherever I am, I try to figure that piece out.

LA: How did you become a solo traveler?

NR: I grew up in a time where so much of life was meant to be reserved for when you’re in partnership. When I get married, I’m going to travel to Paris. When I am partnered, I’m going to do X, Y, and Z. And for me, I didn’t want to pause life. You don’t need a man or a partner to see the world. And so I remember specifically, there was this moment when I was in my 20s. I’d moved to New York and I had very romantic feelings about the Brooklyn Bridge. And I was like, “I don’t want to walk across it. I want it to be a date. I want to walk across the bridge with a hot guy and have pizza and feel like I’m Carrie Bradshaw.” And God bless therapy. And I disabused myself of that notion. And I took myself across that bridge and got myself a whole pie, and I had the best fucking time. I think women especially shouldn’t wait for life to begin. It starts now. And so I wanted to be able to make these memories that if and when I find a partner, I can share that with them.