Natasha Rothwell Jokingly Tells Sterling K. Brown He Almost Ended Her Parents’ Marriage

The 'Insecure' actress joked her mom's crush on Brown was strong enough to shake a 47-year union.

June 8, 2025

Natasha Rothwell explained the hilarious way Sterling K. Brown almost got in between her parents’ marriage.

In a new interview of Variety’s Actors on Actors, the Insecure actress admitted to Brown that his role in Army Wives ruined her parents’ decades-long marriage.

“You are so charismatic. You are so easy to watch. You almost broke up my parents' marriage,” Rothwell joked at the two-minute and 30-second mark at the video linked above. “I just remember being just like, ‘If this n***a come up and ruin years of 47 marriage, I’m gonna be upset.”

Brown laughed before adding, “The older Black women and me, we got a thing. Me and Mrs. Jones.”

“Yeah, I mean you ain’t daddy yet, so hold up,” Rothwell quipped back. “It’s Mrs. Rothwell, Mr. Colonel Rothwell.”

From there, they found common ground in their upbringing, with both having fathers who served in the military. Rothwell mentioned her dad was in the Air Force while Brown shared that his father was in the Army and stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War.

Elsewhere in the interview, Brown recalled the first time he met Rothwell before he truly got to know her, saying she seemed “demure,” “so refined and so elegant.” He also praised her star turn with Kelli on HBO’s Insecure, noting that she was initially hired as a writer.

Rothwell confirmed the story, saying, “I thought I made one too many dick jokes and I was getting in trouble. And Issa [Rae]’s producer was like, ‘We want to see you in our office after the work day,’ and I spun out. I remember texting her. I was like, ‘I think I just fucked it up. I messed up,’ and I go in the office and they're like, ‘You know, we were about to get into auditions for Kelli,’ and in my mind I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, I'll read for them’ or whatever, and they're like, ‘We want you to be Kelli.’ And I just remember bursting into tears.”

Watch Natasha Rothwell and Sterling K. Brown’s full Actors on Actors episode up top.