For seven weeks running, prosthetic privates, brotherly hand jobs and well-executed smirks have reliably titillated The White Lotus‘ very-online audience and dominated the entertainment news cycle. Despite the heady and sometimes alienating themes — or perhaps because of them — HBO‘s once-scrappy experiment has emerged as arguably the most provocative and debated hit of the decade.
Each frame is meticulously plotted by creator Mike White, the writer-director who moonlights as a reality show competitor (two cycles of The Amazing Race with his dad and one on Survivor, solo). His unlikely drama, born out of a 2020 plea from HBO boss Casey Bloys to film something, anything, in a COVID-friendly bubble, was designed as a limited series. Then White took a simple conceit, the privileged class set loose on a titular five-star resort with the promise of murder at the finish line, and courted 43 Emmy nominations to date, an audience on track to top 20 million per episode and an endless list of actors all vying to relocate to far-flung locales for little more than scale.
Much like his viewers, White is deeply invested in the dialogue around his drama. “People now come into the show thinking it needs to be about hotel employees getting stepped on by rich people every season,” he says, bristling at the notion of any formula — mystery corpses notwithstanding. “Then there’s the criticism that the show has become the thing it was supposed to satirize. At this point, people want The White Lotus to be different things. But I’m just one random writer trying to figure out how to get through the day.”
Ahead of the April 6 finale, White, along with 25 castmembers, producers and creatives, goes deep on every salacious moment of the season thus far and what, exactly, it takes to pull off the buzziest show about (very) bad behavior.
“YEAH, SHOWING DONG IS MY GENIUS”
Coming off of seasons in Hawaii and Italy, Mike White was intent on taking his 15-time Emmy-winning series to Asia. He just wasn’t sure where, exactly. This third cycle would turn his cerebral gaze to Buddhism, but that didn’t mean there’d be any less sex.
MIKE WHITE (CREATOR) Originally, I wanted to shoot in Japan. I was in Thailand when my dad and I got eliminated from The Amazing Race — two weeks in an elimination station with all these other bitter reality contestants, I was just like, “I don’t ever want to come back here.” But HBO was really pushing it because Thailand had good tax incentives. As an artist, your knee-jerk reaction is, “I’m not doing that!”
CASEY BLOYS (HBO CHIEF) Obviously you take into account the country’s infrastructure with crews and tax breaks.
DAVID BERNAD (PRODUCER) We visited Thailand as a courtesy to HBO.
WHITE And I got really sick with bronchitis. They put me on a nebulizer. It was like I’d smoked crack — not that I’ve smoked crack. For two days, I did not sleep. I was just lying in a hospital bed [in Chiang Mai], trying to think about what the show was, and it came to me.
BERNAD I saw Mike the next morning, and he told me what he’d hallucinated. That’s basically what we shot.
WHITE I’ve dabbled in Buddhism, and Thailand worked for the themes that I was trying to get into. The show is about identity and desire — and then there’s another part of me, the mischievous gay part, that’s just like, “How do I create something that’s dirty and funny?” It’s amusing to me when people approach the show in this very literal way, like the show is about incest. I’m glad we found you, but you’re not really the audience.
JASON ISAACS (TIMOTHY RATLIFF) The series is much more profound and rich and resonant and human than others, but Mike’s genius is also that he knows how to titillate and provoke and create conversations. He uses the medium of hourlong television at a weekly interval utterly perfectly. It’s why the internet is full of talk of Timothy Ratliff going full-frontal.
WHITE Yeah, showing dong is my genius. When I was doing [network] TV when I was like 30, we’d go and test these pilots, and you’d have people sitting there with their little dials to show if they’re interested or not. It’s insane how base everyone is. You show a woman with big tits and suddenly the dial goes up. It’s the oldest trick in the book.
ISAACS I was interested in what people were thinking of Mike and this twisted, marvelous world he makes up, so I was reading a lot online, and you couldn’t help but see people talking about my [take on a Southern] accent. Then it was replaced by prurient talk about a nude shot.
SARAH CATHERINE HOOK (PIPER RATLIFF) He’s really upset about [all of the prosthetic talk]!
WHITE He was totally easy and wanted to do it. I think Jason wants the world to think that that’s him, and so he doesn’t want to admit that it’s a prosthetic. That is my two cents.
“EVERYONE AUDITIONS FOR THE WHITE LOTUS”
With the only recurring franchise star face down in the Ionian Sea at the end of season two — RIP, Tanya! — White and his co-conspirators were left to populate an almost entirely new cast. An indie icon, a global pop star, a fan favorite and one well-kept secret were among those tapped for the most coveted gig in Hollywood.
WHITE I’d come up with the Rick and Chelsea storyline, the family storyline, the Belinda storyline and the idea of these three women. The key to the show is just casting the right person for the part.
CARRIE COON (LAURIE DUFFY) These roles are highly coveted by all of our friends, so you want to show up and do a good job. You want people to say, “I’m glad it was you.” There’s a lot of pressure.
FRANCESCA ORSI (HBO DRAMA CHIEF) I was on a girls trip with a few actresses, and it was so awkward. I love them as people and as friends, but everybody’s vying to be in that show.
COON Everyone auditions for The White Lotus.
MEREDITH TUCKER (CASTING DIRECTOR) I think people love this show so much that they’re willing to audition.
MICHELLE MONAGHAN (JACLYN LEMON) I was just excited to get 10 pages of the third season, some insight into what Mike White had cooked up.
LALISA “LISA” MANOBAL (MOOK) I’ve been performing [in Blackpink] for a long time, and this opportunity came right when I was trying to find a new challenge. They sent over the script, and I sent a tape back.
WHITE I did not know who Lisa or Blackpink was. All I knew was that there was a Blackpink girl [her bandmate, Jennie Kim] in The Idol, and I was like, “We’re not doing that.” Then I found out that there might be security issues, and I was just like, “No.” They were like, “She’ll audition.”
BERNAD We had her come meet us in Phuket at a secret location, and at that point, we’d already met with actresses in Bangkok and had someone we were really interested in. But Lisa was so humble and she’d worked so hard on her performance. This was someone fighting for this part.
MANOBAL Before I flew to Thailand, I did some acting lessons. I was so nervous. I brought my mom.
WHITE Her audition was amazing. And Lisa’s so nice and uncomplicated, but I still didn’t want to cast her. I’m just used to not having so much attention; we don’t need it. But I wanted to be respectful to Thailand. She’s like Taylor Swift meets Princess Diana there.
TAYME THAPTHIMTHONG (GAITOK) With the rest of the cast, even if they didn’t know her music personally, they definitely knew of Lisa or someone who’s absolutely crazy about her. So when they’d meet her, there was a lot of, “Heeeey, how are you?”
WHITE She’s more than just a pop star, I just didn’t get it initially. When we cast her, there were people in the production that cried. And anything she does is scrutinized, so it’s a nice part. It’s not like she’s a tramp running around sleeping with married men. We got our fill of that.
BERNAD Everyone is treated the same on The White Lotus. They get paid the same, and we do alphabetical billing, so you’re getting people who want to do the project for the right reasons, not to quote The Bachelor. It’s a system we developed in the first season because there was no money to make the show. [Season one was made early in the pandemic for less than $4 million an episode; season three is said to cost in the $6 million to $7 million range.]
TUCKER It makes it so much easier. You tell people this is what it is. And some won’t do it — and honestly, you can’t hold it against people who need to make a living. Our series regulars are pretty much doing this for scale. [Multiple sources say they make roughly $40,000 an episode.]
BERNAD And it’s not negotiable. [According to two sources, Woody Harrelson, who initially was considered for the Rick Hatchett role, went all the way to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to see if his salary could be negotiated. It couldn’t.]
WALTON GOGGINS (RICK HATCHETT) When Mike was casting season two, my agents asked me if I’d write a letter to him, and I said no. I’m not that kind of person. If the time is right to collaborate with any filmmaker, it won’t be because I reached out to them. So, I didn’t write that letter for season two, luckily for me, because the answer absolutely would have been no, it was definitely going to be Michael Imperioli and not me in Sicily.
WHITE Occasionally, there will be someone like Jennifer Coolidge where you want to write something for the person. I knew her for decades.
TUCKER The thing that was so great about Jennifer is that she’s such a comedy stalwart. He likes to have a comedic foundation with at least one person. That was Parker.
PARKER POSEY (VICTORIA RATLIFF) I was at Jennifer Coolidge’s Halloween party, alone at a cheese table at 1 the morning, wondering, “Should I have some more cheese?” Mike was one foot out the door, and he’s like, “Hi, I just want to say you’re doing such great work lately. Blah blah blah. Bye!” It struck me: Maybe I’m going to be part of White Lotus. My friends were like, “Of course you are.”
NATASHA ROTHWELL (BELINDA LINDSEY) I met Mike for dinner, and he says to me, “I want to bring Belinda back.” At that point, I didn’t know the storyline. He just told me it’s going to be in Asia somewhere and it’ll explore spirituality. I was just like, “Wherever you want me, I’ll be there.”
BERNAD Soon after, we figured out that Jon Gries was also going to return and he was so committed to keeping it a secret. There was no press release for him, no premiere, no photos. At one point, we were going from Phuket to Bangkok, which is like a 12-hour drive, and he drove in a car with the equipment just to avoid being spotted with us at an airport.
PATRICK SCHWARZENEGGER (SAXON RATLIFF) I was scared to even take a photo with him on my phone.
JON GRIES (GREG HUNT, AKA “GARY”) I told people I was going to the Philippines to film a new TV show for a European network. I’m using this as a platform to apologize to everybody that I’ve lied to.
TUCKER Finding the Ratliff children took a little more legwork, more auditions.
BERNAD Patrick Schwarzenegger’s last name worked against him, by the way. We didn’t want to cast him because of that. He was just so good.
TUCKER For that stuff with the brothers, we had to tell people beforehand. We said, “There is going to be some same-sex kissing and stuff. Are you comfortable with that?” I think maybe one kid for Sam’s role dropped out, but some of these kids were barely 18, so I could understand.
BERNAD When we sent the scripts to Patrick and Sam, Mike and I were both like, “I hope they don’t drop out.” Mike made me text Patrick. We were anxious.
SAM NIVOLA (LOCHLAN RATLIFF) When they sent me my contract, it was like, “You have to be comfortable with sexually explicit scenes or whatever,” and I was like, “Sure, yeah, I’ve never really done anything like that on camera — first time for everything.” But I was not expecting that!
“YOU’RE NOW COSMICALLY LINKED”
Determined never to film in the San Fernando Valley again, White found a new adventure — and a source of gastrointestinal woes for many — in Thailand. The famously insulated set offered the cast six and a half sweaty months of bonding with their fictional families, partying like locals and, for Walton Goggins, going a little stir-crazy.
WHITE I made Enlightened, and I was really proud of that show, but you drive to Sony, sit on the set and it feels like a fucking job. Taking everybody to Thailand? That sounds fun. I’m like the Agatha Christie character who invites everybody, and I’m always surprised that not everyone’s on the same trip. Some people love it, and some people are like, “What the fuck? This is hard.” I’m like, “What, you want to be driving to Burbank on the 405? Fuck off. This is a life experience.”
BLOYS I think more than anything, it’s the opportunity to work with Mike — and to stay in a nice hotel.
ISAACS When we first got there, we took over the Four Seasons Koh Samui. You can’t have paying guests when there’s a film crew there, so I got a huge villa to myself with a full-sized pool and a butler. It’s fabulous to FaceTime your friends and show off, but I was also really lonely. The kids — Patrick, Sam and Sarah Catherine — came to my rescue.
HOOK There were no chemistry reads with anyone, so it was like, fingers crossed we all feel like a family. The Ratliffs had hopped on a group chat before we got to Thailand, and it was just the most chaotic group chat I had ever seen. Parker would be texting a lot, and then she’d be like, “I have to go guys. I have the flu. I have to go take care of myself. But let me tell you about this bird that I just saw.” I was like, “Oh, this is going to be fun!” Then we all got there and spent every waking minute together.
ISAACS When you’d ask the kids, “Whatcha doing tonight?,” they’d go, “I’m going out with Dad.” Then I’d be on FaceTime with my real kids, and I’d say, “The kids are here.” And they’d go, “Daddy, we’re your kids.” I’d be like, “I know, I know.”
WHITE It does start to feel like, what is real?
AIMEE LOU WOOD (CHELSEA) Once I got cast, our producer [Bernad] connected Walton and me over text and said, “You’re now cosmically linked.” Walton was like, “Hello, Chelsea.” I was like, “Riiiiick!” Then we started sending Scorpio emojis back and forth.
LESLIE BIBB (KATE BOHR) People think Michelle, Carrie and I knew one another before this. We did not. And that’s the thing with chemistry. You just never fucking know if it’s going to be there or not.
MONAGHAN I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I can count on one hand the number of times my co-star has been a woman. The fact that this trio, all of us in our 40s, are able to work together is not lost on us.
BIBB When we were cast, we were immediately on a thread: “When did these women meet? Where are they from?” We just started sending pictures of ourselves at different ages. Three and a half weeks later, we’re on a plane to The Upside Down.
SCHWARZENEGGER Me and Michelle [along with Nick Duvernay, who plays Belinda’s son, Zion] went to the Full Moon Party the first week that we got to Thailand.
MONAGHAN We classified it as research. When you get to a Full Moon Party, there is a lot of fire. And one of the things that is most enticing for a lot of revelers is the fire jump rope. Patrick and Nick jumped in there.
HOOK Those two are party boys. They were kind of down for anything. Whereas the rest of us, we didn’t just get completely smashed right off the bat. But you guys go have fun! I actually think Nick burned his foot doing the fire jump rope.
MONAGHAN Patrick deftly jumped out and Nick stayed another 20 seconds. They were playing with fire.
COON People have an idea about what it’s like to do The White Lotus — that it’s glamorous — and they’re wrong. It’s way more like working in a regional theater in Wisconsin, where you’re showing up in a new town every day. We moved 12 times or something. We were living out of suitcases.
ROTHWELL And you’re dealing with cicadas that are screaming as if they’re on fire, and you’re trying to pretend that your face is not melting into your chest because of the incredible heat.
POSEY It makes you kind of loopy.
ROTHWELL I also know way too much about a lot of people’s gastrointestinal issues. There’s a lot of sharing and caring that goes on because you’ve become this weird, beautiful family.
CHARLOTTE LE BON (CHLOE) Coming in after [a month and a half] when everybody knows each other and their characters and they’re all really close was really hard.
TUCKER Had we seen people in person for these roles, we would’ve realized the original Chloe [Francesca Corney, who was on set for several weeks] was quite petite and just going to play too young. The part was reconceived for Charlotte.
LE BON Just being part of The White Lotus is already stressful, so I was crying a lot that first week.
GOGGINS At times, I felt misunderstood, like I was a fucking downer for everyone else. I was just consumed by the story. It got to a place where they would just put my chair somewhere different on set or I’d sit on a rock away from everybody and wait for the weekends to hang out with people. But Aimee and I became very close, very quickly, and a part of that was because when everyone else was like, “Oh, just leave that guy alone,” Aimee constantly came and poked me.
WOOD There was a lot of (in a serious voice), “Let Walton do his thing. This is his process.” I’d just be like, “Well, I’m going to go chat with him.” Because that’s what Chelsea would do, and I can’t be thinking when we’re starting a scene, like (in a formal voice), “Hello, Mr. Goggins.” Then I’m not going to be able to be Chelsea.
GOGGINS She’d be like, “Oh, you’re not some scary guy. You’re a fucking teddy bear is what you are.” And she was right. But it was part and parcel of the experience that I needed.
WOOD He’d say, “Thank you for calling my bluff.” Because he’d be off as a lone wolf, but he didn’t really want that, in the same way that Rick doesn’t really want that.
GOGGINS You do eventually see Rick in his environment, with his friend, who’s [played by] Sam Rockwell, who’s also one of my best friends. And this very taciturn guy in all of this pain is suddenly enjoying himself, and I waited a long time to have that. I waited a long time to be around people that I could connect with in this experience because that was Rick’s experience. I had that as soon as Sam walked through the door. [Rockwell plays Frank, an old friend of Rick’s who delivered a candid and instantly viral four-minute monologue — part sexual confession, part epiphany of identity — to a gobsmacked Goggins.]
BIBB I knew with Walton how all-consuming it had been — and painful. I also knew Sammy [who is Bibb’s longtime partner] would be an oxygen mask for him. Before Sam was even doing the show, I told him, “There’s this monologue that I find so beautiful.” I know everyone’s like, “Oh, so provocative!” But that’s just looking at the surface.
WHITE There was somebody else [again, Harrelson], and our schedule kept changing. Walton’s part was supposed to be one of these bald guys we pepper the thing with, and Walton’s not exactly that. He’s a bit more handsome, he has hair, and so I wanted a doppelgänger for him and the perfect doppelgänger was Sam. And obviously they’re good friends.
BIBB Sam marches to the beat of his own drummer. It’s his process. I remember being on the treadmill at the hotel gym, and Dave came in and said, “So, hey, Sam?” I was so nervous. I just said, “If he doesn’t do it, you can’t be mad at me.”
BERNAD Sam is a perfectionist, and the window to do the job was very tight — two or three weeks and then this giant monologue. He passed at first.
SAM ROCKWELL (FRANK) I first worked with Mike on Gentlemen Broncos [which White acted in and produced] in 2009, and we’ve stayed in touch since. We also did The One and Only Ivan together. He wrote that. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull this off. I was in the middle of shooting in South Africa on Gore Verbinski’s movie Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and the monologue was, as you have now seen, a lot. I was scared that I didn’t have enough time to prep and get into the headspace of this character.
BERNAD We just didn’t let him pass. We were like, “Great, so when are you coming?”
ROCKWELL I pitched Mike some ideas, and we read it through, and he was on board with the take I had on this guy. We wanted to make him feel possibly ex-military, super masculine and kind of nonchalant, which worked in contrast to Mike’s writing in the scene.
WHITE It was such a dream.
“THIS IS FUCKING WEIRD”
With spirituality as his undercurrent, White’s Lotus again provided weekly watercooler fodder with storylines of incest, threesomes, childhood friends gone MAGA and, of course, “loraaaazepam.” There were also a few storylines (and ladyboys) left on his cutting-room floor.
WHITE I don’t want to write identity coming-of-age stories. I’m not interested in someone coming out. I like something that feels kind of naughty, which is the opposite of that. I also want to make the wider audience complicit in those stories so that they’re suddenly going down this wormhole with me. There’s some kind of pleasure in getting a bigger audience on board with these erotic moments. And the incest thing, it’s really more about someone who is trying to connect with his brother and his sister through the things they value. Saxon is all about getting off, and Piper is renouncing the materialistic.
NIVOLA It makes sense for the story and it makes sense practically, and sort of metaphorically in a sad way for my character. But that was the first time I’ve ever even kissed anyone on camera.
LE BON In the beginning, they just did a little kiss. Mike was like, “I’m sorry, guys, but this needs to be a little more.” And Sam was like, “OK, let’s just do it and then we’ll be done with it.” Patrick went for it, obviously. He has to do it, and he’s a great actor. And then he was like (prolonged gagging noise) …
SCHWARZENEGGER The thing is, that reaction? It’s Saxon.
LE BON Oh my God, I don’t want Patrick to be mad at me [for saying he wanted to throw up].
SCHWARZENEGGER When I’m in character, I believe that’s what he would’ve done. Right then, and then again the next morning, it’s like, “Is he going to throw up?” And he does. I hope it wasn’t taken out of context, that I would throw up because of Sam or whatever.
NIVOLA I think it went as smoothly as that kind of thing can possibly go. I mean, I don’t have anything to compare it to, but really the only thing I felt uncomfortable about was the fact that we’re on a fucking yacht and I get seasick.
LE BON For the threesome, I talked to the intimacy coordinator before I talked to Mike. That’s how concerned production was about the scene. I had concerns about what I wanted to show or not, and they were obviously so respectful about that. Sex scenes are always awkward. The three of us were just like, “This is fucking weird.”
BERNAD For Mike, it’s not about shocking people or making them uncomfortable, but if people are made uncomfortable by the story he’s telling, that’s a byproduct.
BIBB He does have an uncanny ability to instantly be part of the zeitgeist. That’s what was amazing about the Trump scene. [Bibb’s character, Kate, is revealed to be a Republican in episode three — much to her friends’ dismay and the internet’s delight. Bibb’s smirk from the scene made the rounds and was even used by Meghan McCain during a Twitter spat with Coon.]
COON Mike’s walking that line of what’s too political.
BIBB They were supposed to shoot this season in 2023. Then the writers strike happened. So, he wrote that scene in, what, 2022? Even when we filmed it, I was like, “Is this going to feel dated by the time it airs?”
COON I do think people like Meghan McCain and her community are really gratified to see a conservative person on television. I have conservative people in my life who reached out to me to say that was an awesome conversation, because I don’t think it vilifies Kate.
MONAGHAN The three of us originally just referred to them as “the ladies.” People have taken to referring to them as “the toxic trio,” but Mike’s original inspiration for us was “the big blonde blob” — this group of women that moves together and sort of sounds alike and looks alike. Interchangeable. Once the season starts to progress, you start to see them individuate from each other.
WHITE I knew I didn’t want to do, “Here’s the short dumpy one, here’s the pretty one …” I wanted them all to be variations on the same idea when they show up. I’d been on a vacation where there were these three women who I couldn’t even tell apart until one would peel off and you’d hear the other two talking [about her].
COON There was more to that [Trump] conversation. Originally, you discovered that Laurie’s daughter is nonbinary and Laurie is struggling with her teenager going by “they/them.” The Trump thing becomes much more offensive to Laurie because of her daughter, but this was before Trump was reelected and before this war on the trans community was escalated. Mike felt that it was actually too political, or too far, or too distracting.
WHITE It felt right in March of last year. Now, there’s a vibe shift. I don’t think that it was radical, but that’s not the kind of attention I want. The politics of it could overwhelm whatever ideas I’m trying to talk about. And a lot of it was about time. Every episode is bulging at 60 minutes.
BIBB I think the “Mike White cut” is probably an hour and a half — sometimes even longer. Kate had this insane dream sequence with the ladyboys and ping-pong and everything was glowing. It was also kind of like The Shining. There just wasn’t room for it.
WHITE There’s a lot of stuff that ended up being cut. Not because it wasn’t cool, I just needed to be hard on the material. As a writer, I got a little indulged. The episodes were coming in at an hour and 40 minutes, and HBO was like, “Yeah … you need to figure out how to shape it.” People are already like, “It’s too slow! Let’s go, let’s go! Nothing’s happening!” But nothing happened in the first season. Literally. It was basically people sitting around eating meals, but the music gave this tension, and you knew something bad was going to happen.
ISAACS Mike is one of those people who’s preternaturally talented and also utterly secure enough to be completely collaborative. He’ll ask, “What do you think? Any suggestions?”
GOGGINS The very first conversation he and I had was me asking, like, “How does Rick move through the world? Where has he been? How does he dress?” Mike said, “I don’t know.” I go, “Well, I do know.” And he said, “OK, let’s do that.”
GRIES Even at the end of season two, I thought maybe Greg wasn’t intending to kill Tanya. People would say, “You killed her!” And I was like, “I wasn’t even there!” I’d created all kinds of confusing scenarios in my head. So, early in season three, before I’d shot anything, I walked up to Mike and said, “Would you say Greg is a psychopath?” He just said, “Psychopath!” and walked away.
ROTHWELL Season one, Mike and I went page by page through the Belinda scenes, and I’m just pitching ideas and all kinds of stuff. I reached out to see if he had the bandwidth for that again this season, and he’s like, “Absolutely.” It’s the reason you see Belinda clock a Black couple at the restaurant in the first episode. I’d told him about my experiences traveling and seeing other Black people in these spaces and connecting with them.
SCHWARZENEGGER There were a lot of moments where Mike would just let me play. Like when Saxon looks up and down at the ladyboy waitress or when he got out of the pool and kind of readjusted himself when he’s looking at Chelsea. Mike came over after that and was like, “Did you just grab yourself?” I was like, “Is that fine? Do you think that’s weird?” He was like, “Dude, that was fucking brilliant.”
COON Mike will do this thing where he scream-laughs at the monitor if he thinks you’re funny. We’re actors, so as soon as you know that’s happening, you become obsessed by it. “He didn’t do the scream-laugh! It’s not funny! I’m not as funny as this person!” You just spiral.
SCHWARZENEGGER Parker probably got Mike to laugh the most.
BIBB The way she says “lorazepam,” like there’s a fat little tongue in there.
POSEY The accent is a bold choice. When I read Mike’s writing, I was like, “What kind of Southerner is she?” I just started to play with it, animate it — Maggie from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, all these different people and also myself and what I think is funny. Then, when I was on the Today show, I just couldn’t resist how funny those words sounded [“Piper, noooo! Tsunaaaami! Buuuuddhism!”] in that deep Southern accent. I love the Steel Magnolias of it all. But Mike can slip into your performance. He was everybody. He wrote it, so he’s like a shape-shifter of all these characters.
BIBB When I had my meeting with Mike, he asked me if I’d ever taken an Enneagram test. It’s nine personality types. He goes, “I think you’re a one, I think you’re a perfectionist.” No, I’m not! Then he says, “You’re going to do the test right now.” And I was exactly what he said, and then he told me that Kate was a perfectionist, too, and to just go off of that.
WOOD Oh, he’s obsessed with the Enneagram. And because we all wanted Mike’s affection and his approval, even though he’s usually the most chill person on set, everyone did the test. And then everyone was like, “Oh God, have I got a bad number? Have I got one that Mike doesn’t like? Oh God, oh God.” Everyone was so nervous to tell Mike what our number was, which was so funny.
WHITE At the same time, I’m always on the phone with Dave, being like, “What do the actors say? Are the actors happy?” I’m constantly needing affirmation that they’re happy.
“PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HATE MIKE WHITE”
White was still agonizing over his season finale, but that didn’t stop HBO from pestering him to get to work on (and pick a location for) season four. Chatter about an all-star cycle persisted as the newest cast reveled in the attention that accompanies any stay at The White Lotus and debated whether they even knew how it all ends.
WHITE I am grateful that I keep getting to do it. That’s the goal. But everything’s always going to be compared to something else. There’s a critic I won’t name, and every time I do something, they’re like, “It’s not as good as the last one.” You didn’t even like that one! I certainly have gotten enough praise, so it’s probably good for me to have some people be like, “Did you have to go so slow?”
HOOK The finale just needs to be out already! There was a lot to keep secret. I’m still feeling a bit suffocated. And I don’t even know what happens.
BERNAD Season two, we were super lax — even Jennifer’s death scene was on the [script] sides. Woody Harrelson happened to be visiting the set, and he read them and was like, “You ruined it for me!” We were idiots. So, this season, our script supervisor wrote these crazy fake endings that we distributed on set. We didn’t distribute the real last script. People on set didn’t know, except the actors, obviously.
SCHWARZENEGGER I knew the show was big, but I didn’t know how big. Everywhere we go, on planes, in coffee shops, people come up talking about their theories about what’s going to happen.
POSEY There’s just such an excitement to this. People want that. They want that coffee o’clock, “Did you see last night’s episode?” moment. It’s kind of old school. It’s Dynasty. It’s Dallas. And my mom is loving it.
HOOK Patrick, Sam, Jason and I just went out as a family in New York, and it felt like we were One Direction. It was crazy!
SCHWARZENEGGER Yeah, Sam took us to some real party bar first, and it was St. Patrick’s Day, and we’d walk by these big groups of guys, and all of them just yell, “Saaaaxon!” I was like, “Oh, God.”
WHITE There’s already pressure from HBO [for season four]. When they have something they’re bullish on, they want to get it out there. We were supposed to start scouting in April, and I was like, “You guys, I haven’t been home in three years.”
TUCKER Last week, an agent reached out, like, “It’s an emergency.” I call him and he says, “I know the answer is ‘no,’ but someone said they already had an audition for season four. A client heard this from their friend.” He has not written one thing. What are these people talking about? Don’t call me until after this one.
WHITE Where we choose to go next could be hugely impactful [to that locale]. That’s why it was so cool to shoot in Thailand. It’s hard to go backward. Like, “Oh, we’ll do it in Paris!” That feels like a cop-out.
MANOBAL The way Mike captured Thailand, it’s amazing. I know Thailand well. Still, through this show, I fell in love with it again.
BERNAD This idea that somehow we can help people make a better living, to me, there’s a lot to be said for that. We almost have a responsibility to go somewhere that can benefit.
WHITE At the same time, I’m not a cultural ambassador. I’m a random writer. I need to focus on what I’m excited about creatively and not get too far ahead of myself.
BERNAD I’d bet $100,000 we don’t end up in the cold next. Even if we flirted with the idea, Mike just wouldn’t want to be in the cold. He hates it.
SCHWARZENEGGER I’ve heard rumors of them doing an all-star season.
WHITE I’d love to do that.
SCHWARZENEGGER They could get all the douche guys in one hotel together. Mike said that one day when we were on set, he was like, “Oh my God, it’d be so good to get you, Jake Lacy and Theo James in the same room.”
BLOYS Maybe Molly Shannon’s character and Victoria Ratliff know each other? There are so many connections between all these awful people.
WHITE To be honest, I’m a bit of a head case right now. I’m crying in my car. This show is my whole life, then it’s over and I’m back in my house with my dog, trying to remember who my friends are and what did I do before the show. I don’t want to become one of those crazy people who’s lost the plot. I had to take these MMPI psych tests, and they were like, “You’ve become one standard deviation less nice than you were in 2018.” Yep, that sounds right.
SCHWARZENEGGER I’m just excited to watch the finale with the rest of the world because I actually have no idea what happens.
ROTHWELL I travel a lot, and I’ll have hotel and spa staff come up to me like, “Thank you so much for representation. We have to deal with some crazy guests, and you show how much we have to hold it in. They better not kill you!”
POSEY I forgot who died. It was so stressful when I read it. The dark stuff, I blazed through.
GRIES Whatever you think you know, you’re going to get it wrong.
WHITE It’s an hour and a half. It’s kind of epic. As a filmmaker, it’s probably the piece of work that I’m like, “I can’t believe I did that.”
LE BON People are going to hate Mike White.
WHITE My hope is that it’ll feel like a cathartic sad or a satisfying sad and not a “What the fuck?” sad, but people are going to have a million different opinions. You just hope you stick the landing.
***
The Cast of The White Lotus were photographed by Guy Aroch on March 16 at BOOM at the Standard Highline in New York City and on March 21 and March 22 at Pendry West Hollywood and Pendry Residences West Hollywood.
Photographed by Guy Aroch
Artistic + Fashion Director: Alison Edmond
Visual Media Director: Ash Barhamand
Photo Producer: Ava Selbach
Associate Photo Editor: Naomy Pedroza
Fashion Assistants: Morgan Lipsiner, Elliott Pearson, Marley Pearson
Tailors: Tatyana Cassanell, Lars Nord
Digital Tech: Matthew Elli
This story appeared in the April 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
