Behind the scenes of the third season of The White Lotus: more ambitious, more sulphurous, darker

It’s hot. Or, as Mike White, the creator of The White Lotus, bluntly puts it, “it’s really crazy hot.” But this scorching 43°C heat doesn’t stop Patrick Schwarzenegger, Arnold’s son, from doing push-ups while the team prepares for a new take. As the actors in the scene sit on deck chairs at the edge of the infinity pool at the Four Seasons Koh Samui, three burly Thais, wearing wide-brimmed straw hats and carrying soaked towels around their necks, enter the water brandishing imposing reflectors.

The cameras start rolling as Aimee Lou Wood, the rising English star of Sex Education, jokes with Patrick Schwarzenegger while casually munching on an apple. A “cut!” » echoes from a poolside cabana with downed shutters, where Mike White is glued to a screen, headphones on and a big smile on his lips. “Can you do that line again on the trio? ”, he shouts. “Really, let go. » Another meticulously carved apple is handed to Aimee Wood for continuity. Three takes later, the producer is satisfied and raises his arms to the sky in a little dance of joy. “I like it,” he mutters.
Mike White, one of television’s most sought-after producers, nonchalantly walks over to the two actors to pay them good-natured compliments, although his messy hair, worn shorts and sweat-stained Kauai T-shirt make him seem more like a drifter who came from the beach to sell weed. The team breaks for lunch, except for Aimee, who has a stomach ache after eating 15 apples.

It won’t be long before fans of The White Lotus feel the savory pain of character friction and mounting suspense in their guts when Season 3 premieres on February 16. HBO’s hit black comedy, which follows the snobbish guests and exhausted staff of a luxury hotel chain, will transform once again into a crucible of tortuous subterfuges that will put your nerves to the test. Taking place in Thailand, after previous seasons in Hawaii and Italy, this new episode promises to be grander, more epic, and much, much darker.

“I really feel like the other seasons were just a rehearsal for this one,” says Mike White, perched on a stool between takes at the Bangla Muay Thai Stadium in Phuket, during one of two exclusive on-set visits granted to TIME. “There are things that I have never staged before. HAS”

As is series tradition, details of Lotus’ third season have been kept under wraps. This mystery is the charm of the series; the characters are revealed to us little by little, while dozens of small mysteries and major twists and turns lead in a crescendo to the final crime. This is especially true for season 3, which features actors who steal the show like Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins and Parker Posey, and which marks both a change of atmosphere and a broadening of the horizon. Surprises abound, as do crooks from all walks of life. Previous seasons opened with a flash-forward on the consequences of a murder that would only happen at the end. This season’s thrilling prologue hints at an even more terrifying escalation, and is part of several elaborate action sequences that mark such a shift that the producer feels compelled to assert: “I’m not Ridley Scott. HAS”

In 2020, HBO asked Mike White, who writes and directs each episode alone, a rarity in the television world, to design a miniseries set in a single location that could be produced under onerous COVID-19 protocols. He then confined a troupe to the Four Seasons in Maui for a satire on wealth that also turned out to be a thriller. The series was broadcast for the first time in July 2021 and received almost unanimous reception. Audiences enjoyed the scathing dialogue, actress Jennifer Coolidge’s tragicomic performance as emotionally impoverished heiress Tanya McQuoid, and the series’ mischievous observations on how money shapes each of our relationships. Its audience grew 3.5 times over the course of the season, with 7 million people streaming the premiere before the finale aired, a remarkable number for a series without dragons, and it dominated the 2022 Emmys.

Of course, at that point it wasn’t really a limited series anymore. HBO renewed it for a second season just before the end of the first. Taking place in the romantic setting of Sicily and freed from the constraints of the pandemic, season 2 allowed Mike White to take his characters outside the hotel complex, on excursions that expanded the cinematic framework of the series. Lotus’s trick is to titillate viewers with glimpses of luxury only accessible to the wealthy, while reassuring us that their guilty consciences and limited worldviews prevent them from enjoying such splendor. Season 2 was nominated for a multitude of Emmys and earned Jennifer Coolidge a second trophy.

No one is more surprised than Mike White that this insightful style, which he has been honing over two decades, has propelled Lotus to prominence. “I’m happy that people like it and that I can continue to do it,†he said during a video call in January. But “I don’t think I’ll ever become the kind of writer who says, ‘I know what people want.’ For him, the series, full of these awkward conversations that fans can dissect endlessly on social networks, reflects his sensitivity which he himself describes as “slightly provocative” and offers him an outlet to make cultural comments diverted.

It is also the fruit of a lifetime spent traveling. Although he enjoys his many adventures, Mike White has noticed how vacations can destroy the familiar context of a daily life surrounded by friends, family and the distractions of work. What’s supposed to be a hard-earned break can spiral into an existential crisis. “If you find yourself in a place with a different culture, language and atmosphere, plus you have to deal with heavy personal issues,†he says, there are times when you think, “Should I just take the plunge?â€

Every morning during filming, from 7 a.m., a multitude of yachts anchored off the beach to allow their passengers to admire the stars. Some intruders have even undertaken the perilous journey around the rocky promontory which borders the half-moon bay of the hotel complex to sneak onto the plateau.

“A lady from Israel “came around three times saying she wanted to be part of the show,” says Jasjit “JJ” Assi, manager of the Four Seasons Koh Samui resort. “One time she got hurt and was bleeding. HAS”

The humor that underlies The White Lotus comes from the fact that Mike White holds up a distorting mirror to wealthy and privileged Westerners vacationing in a foreign culture from which they are in reality completely disconnected. He wanted to turn to the Orient to write the next chapter, even though his initial instinct was to set the action in Japan, where he spent a lot of time. HBO was reluctant, aware of the bureaucracy in the Land of the Rising Sun, and persuaded him to first take a look at Thailand. The deal was made against a feverish backdrop. The production team was scouting in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, when White was hospitalized with severe bronchitis. “They put me on a nebulizer,” he says, as a troop of extras walk past him to their places for the next take.

“I didn’t sleep for two nights, and the next morning I was like, “I think I found the plot.†The season is pretty much what happened that night. “The fact that The White Lotus is an episodic series means that each season has its own conclusion, “which is always the hardest part,” says White. But after this feverish dream, “I felt like I had found the end,” he says. “And I said to myself: “So I’m going to shoot in Thailand.†â€

For him, returning to Thailand also had a redemptive side. In 2009, Mike and his father Mel were eliminated from the 14th season of reality TV show The Amazing Race in Phuket, before being confined to the show’s elimination zone in Koh Samui. He did not fail to note the irony of the fact that these two places would become the main filming locations for the final part of his greatest success. “I would have hated to spend the rest of my life with a bad image of Thailand,” he explains.

Walton Goggins says his return to Southeast Asia aroused equally deep feelings in him. He came to Thailand 18 years ago after experiencing a personal tragedy. “I sat on these beaches, I walked these streets, looking for answers after an existential crisis,” he says, lounging in a poolside cabana, sipping a Spritz after filming. “I wasn’t prepared for the emotion that this return would bring, because I play someone who is looking for the same thing: he is lost, he is angry, and he is bitter about the fate that life has reserved for him. HAS”

It took Mike White months to find the perfect location, traveling through Thailand’s rolling northern highlands, the bustling city of Bangkok and the southern resorts of Phuket and Krabi. “It’s fun, but it’s like speed dating,” says executive producer David Bernad, who has worked with Mike White for more than 20 years. Koh Samui was one of the final stops on this scouting tour. The resort spans 17 hectares of lush hills dotted with 60 teak villas, all with swimming pools and stunning ocean views. Monkeys are another key element: more than 140 primate statues adorn the roofs and gate posts, and just like the Testa di Moro pottery that marked season 2, monkeys are the new talisman of the escapades that take place under their perch in the treetops.

The Four Seasons also has 15 private residences owned by “some of the richest people not only in Thailand, but around the world,” says JJ Assi. It’s the ideal setting for a series that mocks the feeling of having all the rights of the ultra-rich. In a country where the average annual salary is $5,450, a four-bedroom residence costs a minimum of $8,000 per night. Even within Thailand’s well-developed tourism industry, the Four Seasons operates on another level; Rooms at perfectly comfortable four-star resorts nearby start at around $60. A satire on decadence could not find a more appropriate setting.

As soon as the crew and cast gathered at the Four Seasons, the director gathered everyone for a blessing ceremony led by local monks in the hotel’s Spirit House, a traditional shrine located outside each Thai building, to honor the spirits who inhabit the place. The famously friendly atmosphere that reigns on the sets of Mike White is one of the reasons why so many big stars wanted to land a role, even if it may not be the “Normally when I go on auditions, I have to work for hours trying to make the script sound like something I would say. But there, it sounds natural,” explains Sam Nivola, the son of actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, who plays the youngest son of Posey and Jason Isaacs. Walton Goggins expresses a similar feeling: “Here, we work, we live, we eat in the same place. And when we don’t work, that means someone else is working. And we get jealous, to be completely honest, because they get to say Mike’s lines and we don’t. HAS”

Mike White has followed a unique professional path. The actor, screenwriter, producer, then director wrote episodes of the teen series Dawson and Freaks and Geeks in the late 1990s, before making a name for himself in arthouse cinema at age 29 as the writer and star of Chuck & Buck, a comedy about African-American show biz which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000 and was awarded Best Low-Budget Feature Film at the Independent Spirit Awards. (“I knew Mike before it was fashionable,” jokes Carrie Coon. “I have the Chuck & Buck DVD!”) This early success led to him being credited in the credits of several blockbusters, a filmography that continues to grow and which includes School of Rock, The Emoji Movie and Despicable Me 4. But he also found time to write and direct small films that reflect his offbeat humanism, starting with Year of the Dog in 2007. Between two projects, he participated in two seasons of The Amazing Race as well as Survivor.

He tasted television fame in 2011, when HBO unveiled Enlightened, the half-hour comedy-drama he created and in which he starred alongside Laura Dern. Telling the story of a narcissistic corporate executive (Laura Dern) whose nervous breakdown leads to a timely spiritual awakening, the series places its main character in the delicate role of a whistleblower acting for selfish reasons. Fans of Enlightened, which was canceled after just two seasons, should be pleased to see Mike White’s enduring fascination with Eastern spirituality and wellness practices, as well as his skepticism about the way they are exploited by wellness-crazed Westerners, reborn in the next season of Lotus. But while the “tone of Enlightened was a little more grounded in everyday life and observation,” says Mike White, “this one is more epic, more offbeat.” His father Mel was an evangelical minister when he was a child, and he tried at spirituality.

“I went through a phase of Buddhist personal development when I had a nervous breakdown in my thirties,” he says. “I use Buddhist concepts to put my ideas in order. “Her relationship with spirituality and confronting the mortality of her aging parents both fueled the inspiration for the new season. “It’s been a tough year for me personally,” says Mike White, 54. “My parents are getting older, and there are a lot of things going on at home that are not happy. HAS”

The most unifying theme of the series, which is also an integral part of its Thailand season, is the transactional nature of so many relationships that transcend boundaries of gender, race, culture and, most importantly, class, whether between guests and hotel staff or between lovers. In this regard, the series is part of a current international trend for stories, rooted in our polarized global economy, that denounce the rich and powerful, from Parasite and Triangle of Sadness to Squid Game and Succession.

As dead bodies tend to surface in the flash-forwards that open each season of Lotus, the series is also riding the recent streaming craze for detective novels, and has, in turn, created a market for these shoddy detective mysteries aimed at the upper class, such as The Perfect Couple. Netflix and Hulu’s Death and Other Details.

What sets Mike White’s work apart from the rest is his extensive knowledge of human psychology and his ability to help actors translate that understanding into performances that convey the unique blend of desire, illusion and hypocrisy swirling in each character’s head. “There’s this heavenly yet surreal feeling,” says Mike White. “The series is imbued with a bit of Hotel California: you can check in, but you can never leave. “Outside the Bangla Muay Thai Stadium, two dozen life-size plaster sculptures of tigers with piercing red eyes overlook the cavernous entrance. These fearsome creatures guard an arena where two muscular boxers, glistening with sweat, trade blows while a crowd of dreadlocked travelers and posh Eastern Europeans sit at ringside cheering and booing. Yet not a sound escaped the screaming crowd, who were asked to express their enthusiasm in silence.

On the second floor, a video village has been set up in the stadium’s infirmary, where David Bernad and other producers watch the screens amid piles of Hard Rock Café takeout packaging, mosquito spray and boxes of aspirin. The subject of their attention is takes place beyond the ring, in the middle of the wooden stands, where different members of the cast from season 3 gather. There we find Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb, in the role of privileged Americans; Tayme Thapthimthong and Lalisa Manobal, better known as Lisa of K-pop phenomenon Blackpink, as local Thai hotel workers; as well as Arnas Fedaravicius and Julian Kostov, who play members of Thailand’s growing Russian diaspora.

Mike White decided he couldn’t ignore the presence of a Russian element in this season after spending a year in Thailand. In 2023, Russians ranked first among non-Asian tourists arriving in Thailand, with 1.4 million visitors, many of whom were fleeing possible mobilization for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. When asked if the Russian intrigue suggests a story more anchored in world news, White remains evasive. “It seems like there are as many Russians as Thais! “, he jokes. “I just thought it had to be reflected in some way. HAS”

Incorporating authentic Thai voices and characters presented a real challenge, both logistically and artistically, for White. The series used local producers who listened carefully to the Thai dialogues to make sure no one got it wrong. The emphasis on religion and Eastern mysticism is a minefield if approached clumsily. But White doesn’t shy away from these challenges, which he considers part of the art of writing.

“I don’t think the series will ever be a nuanced version of a Thai person’s Buddhist experience,” he says. “I don’t feel capable of writing this. In reality, these are Americans who arrive with preconceived ideas. We talk to people… and we try to build something that seems multidimensional, hoping that it passes the credibility test. Because that’s the nature of storytelling: finding the story, finding the connections between all the people – rather than seeing the differences and being afraid of them.”

The stakes are also high because of the very composition of the Thai cast. Lisa is one of the world’s biggest music stars and one of the most followed female K-pop soloists online. Although initially impressed by the star, a reaction which adds credibility to the duo’s on-screen relationship, Tayme says it didn’t take long for Lisa to break the ice. “The first time I met her at the team dinner, I was really nervous,†he says. “I didn’t even shake his hand. But she said to me: “Hi, do you want to go for a drink?†And we hit it off right away. We both love hip-hop and tequila! HAS”

Tayme, who was born and raised in west London to Thai parents and who, in everyday life, speaks with a refined Chelsea accent, even found himself a language coach. “My character, a hotel security guard, is an island kid from Samui, so Lisa helped me a lot with the intonations.” reassured by Lisa’s professionalism. “Honestly, I was reluctant because I don’t think we need more attention on the show,” he says. “But she did a great audition and I think she’s a great actress. I’m really glad we chose her, because she is a real source of pride for the Thai people. It’s almost like she’s both a pop star and Princess Diana! HAS”

In Thailand, where more than 90% of the population identifies as Buddhist, tourism often includes a spiritual dimension, whether it is visiting a temple or participating in a meditation retreat. Many of the characters we meet this season are, whether they realize it or not, in dire need of relief from what a holistic health practitioner at the resort calls “psychic suffering.” “They’re all suffering in one way or another,” White says. “It’s like they were all dead, but they didn’t know it. HAS”

These feelings manifest themselves in different ways, often through dark humor. the director explains that the trio of women in their forties formed by Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb, who grew up together but led very different lives, are mirrors. As they whisper behind each other’s backs and privately worry about their own shortcomings, their relationship illustrates “how we become defensive about our life’s choices, and how these people who are so close to us can be a source of suffering, even if they don’t intend to, simply because they have chosen a different path.” “.

The financial tycoon patriarch played by Jason Isaacs and the cantankerous conman played by Mr. Goggins have more in common than it appears at first glance, but their self-images are diametrically opposed. While the former feels intense pressure to provide for his family, the latter languishes because of a lifelong lack of love and encouragement. The sinister character of Mr. Goggins represents a type of white expatriate that we constantly encounter in Thailand. Guys like that, he says, are “so isolated in their scam bubble that they can’t communicate through the usual means.” Traveling alongside these haunted men, whose dark stories he would later Google, he overheard conversations where “all they could talk about was how to hide their money from the government.”

These individual spiritual crises are exacerbated by the Thai resort’s proximity to a wild world where lizards appear out of nowhere, water boils at night and monkeys chatter incessantly, conjuring up racing thoughts in evidently restless minds. indifferent to the whims of a spoiled clientele. It is a setting that is both magnificent and sinister. So, yeah, “because it deals with these existential tropes of facing the nothingness of oneself” and “Buddhist themes that deal with life, death and ethical aspects,” White explains, the season “just got heavier.”

There was also the matter of replacing cast members who seemed irreplaceable, particularly Jennifer Coolidge, whose departure was the high point of Season 2. “How do you go about replacing Jennifer?” » asks Mike White. “She’s not only a creative issue, but she’s also a really good friend, and she’s a big part of the show just as a person. I’m not friends with the other cast members in the same way I am with Jennifer. But there are certainly performances that I hope rival his in terms of iconic performances. » Posey, in a maximalist interpretation of a mother under the influence of drugs, oblivious to the dysfunction of her family, exudes a similar atmosphere of privileged suffering. An early episode features the kind of electrifying and awkward conversation that is Lotus’ trademark, in which Posey inexplicably snubs an old acquaintance. The scene aptly encapsulates the ability of White and his actors to infuse a simple interaction with both lightness and anguish. According to Natasha Rothwell, who played Belinda, the spa manager, in season 1 and who reappears in Thailand for a training course, the season as a whole finds a balance: “When we talk about spirituality, there is dark and there is light. So I think you’ll find that there’s a balance throughout the season, but [White] would do spirituality a disservice if it did not address its darker nuances. HAS”

Despite the disturbing themes of the series, the atmosphere on the set was friendly to say the least. However, the experience of the actors differed considerably from that of previous seasons. Natasha Rothwell saw first-hand how Mike White transformed his intimate, COVID-friendly play into a lavish international series. This time, she enthuses, “it’s magnificent. The cast is enormous, the scale of the production is enormous, and it is necessary to carry the story, because it is so solid, rich, complex and tasty. » But it wasn’t just the level of investment or the scale of the story that seemed different. “From what I’ve heard, the second season was a lot more about partying,†says Michael Nivola. “It’s so hot here it’s hard to drink or do anything that will dehydrate you. » White doesn’t know. “Luckily I work all the time, so I can’t let myself do stupid things. I’m sure it’s happening! “Indeed, the heat was relentless.†“I’ve never been so hot,†says Michelle Monaghan. “So we really suffered a lot. “The outdoor scenes involved standing in the tropical sun for hours, and towards the end of filming, many crew members fell ill. The stages were littered with coolers and sachets of isotonic powder. “Thank God I was in shape for that,” says Mike White, who became vegan before filming.

The interior provided little respite, as the whir of the air conditioning made it impossible to use during filming, as dozens of crew members crowded into the rooms under hot spotlights. Between takes, the actors had hair dryers blown on them to remove sweat stains from their clothes, which only increased their body temperature even further.

“We’re shooting intimate scenes, and you stink,” Isaacs says. “At the end of every day, we’re just covered in sweat and makeup. We could take our clothes off with a trowel. It melted our fillings. It would be petty to complain, there are terrible things happening in the world, but we’ve all had enough. HAS”

Yet despite the difficulties of filming, the cast was pleased to find that the creative process was refreshingly collaborative, given that Mike White doesn’t hang on his words. “He wants the actors to be able to express themselves,” explains Jason Isaacs. “It’s a strange paradox: he’s written everything with great precision, but he’s also willing to throw it all away, let the actors do it and just mix it up. “Often it seems like rubbing salt in the wound is what Mike White enjoys most of all. “Mike howls with laughter so hard he ruins the take, but we’re happy to be able to do it again,” he explains. “Then he sits behind the monitor like a sort of imp, throwing out more and more scandalous lines, things that you would almost blush to say, but he pushes things further and further. And we simply trust that when editing, he will find the right tone. HAS”

After the experience of cohesion that was the blessing ceremony on arrival, the filming took place in a more compartmentalized manner, with most of the scenes taking place within the different groups of travelers at the hotel. To avoid having to rearrange different locations, the crew shot two weeks of breakfast scenes, followed by two weeks of lunches, two weeks of bedroom drama, then two weeks at sea. This meant that much of the cast was on break at all times, while remaining on the tray.

This dynamic allowed each group to become closer, says Isaacs, who plays Posey’s husband and the father of Patrick Schwarzenegger, Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook. “I really feel like a parent and very, very close to the children,†he says. “I think it must have seemed weird to my real kids to come in and see how close we were. HAS”

The fact that the actors were all staying in one hotel while playing characters staying in the same hotel reinforced this strange intimacy. Between takes, Nivola lounges on a daybed playing Total War on his portable console. Jason Isaacs suddenly appears, brandishing a tennis racket. “Are you playing?” ”, he asks. “I really hope we can play a game. Mike would play well, but he’s too busy. “The camp atmosphere, where work and relaxation are shared with the same people in the same place, meant that the distinction between actor and character began to blur. “There were times when we went out to dinner and people recited their lines from the show to us word for word,” says Aimee Lou Wood. “The border between fiction and reality is really disappearing, because we live in the series. It’s so weird. This is all very meta. HAS”

We can legitimately wonder, at a time when many prestigious series end after three or four seasons, how many more times Mike White will be able to create such magic. The series was recently renewed for a fourth season. And its long-term future seems limited neither by public interest (the audience increased between season 1 and season 2), nor by a lack of raw material, since it renews itself each season with a new cast, a new location and a new theme. The director already has “some ideas” about what the next episodes could bring and plans to make “maybe six seasons”. Why stop there? “Just because I’ll be 60 then? 59 years old? ‘And then,’ he adds with a bitter smile: ‘And then I’ll probably die.’ HAS”