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There’s nothing quite like working on “The White Lotus,” where cast members live on the same hotel set where they’re filming for as long as six months. And for Season 3 stars Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan — who played three lifelong friends on a girls’ trip to Thailand — it’s something they’re forever bonded by.
“We’d spent half a year together making this thing far from our homes and our families and our routines,” Coon tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “And it’s so fraught when we watch it in a way that it will never be for anybody else. We’ll never be able to explain it. There’s no way to express the fulsomeness of that experience. I’ve said, It’s like being an astronaut. The only person who knows what it’s like is another astronaut.”
That’s true of “White Lotus” cast from other seasons too. “We’re in this very specific club, this amazing experience that is so singular that Mike [White creates], and you get to say his words and live your life in this alternate reality,” Bibb says. “It’s so immersive, and it makes, I think it makes the work better in a strange way. You’re so far from anything that is your reality or your touchstones, which can be so hard.”
On this edition of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, we talk to Coon, Bibb and Monaghan about what it was like to be immersed for so long in “The White Lotus” universe, and how it bonded them much like their characters. They talk about the scene they’re bummed ended up being cut, as well as whether they like to do more episodes, and where they think “The White Lotus” might go next. Also on this episode, the Roundtable discusses the death of “King of the Hill” voice actor Jonathan Joss, just days after he crashed an ATX TV Festival panel hosted by Mike. And we look at the nomination possibilities for the massive “White Lotus” cast. Listen below!
When it comes to iconic “The White Lotus” moments, Carrie Coon’s speech to her character’s friends in the Season 3 finale ranks up at the top.
“I mean, that’s a classic Mike White moment, right?” she tells the podcast.
For much of Season 3, things are becoming more passive aggressive between longtime pals Kate (Bibb), Jaclyn (Monaghan) and Laurie (Coon) as their girls trip exposes some tension in the group. But in the finale, over dinner, Laurie gets honest about how really the trip had just exposed she much she had struggled with the mistakes she made in her own life. In the emotional speech, Laurie realizes that despite her regrets, both time and this friendship, has still made her life meaningful.
“What was lovely about the language of that speech is that it was in in many ways, speaking into the experience we had,” Coon says of their shared journey moving to Thailand and shooting “The White Lotus” over the course of six months. “We got to have that experience together near the end of shooting, and so I think we were all processing the ending of this thing while that was unfolding at the table.”
Bibb says in shooting that scene, she remembers how the three of them “felt very dialed in, all day, like I couldn’t stop crying every time [Coon] said it. I kept improvising these ‘I love yous,’ and then Michelle would say ‘I love you,’ and I think Mike was getting annoyed! But it was so genuine, and I’m so glad they kept it in there… these three people are seen by each other.”
Adds Monaghan: “We all knew what the dialog was, but it was the way in which Carrie performed it. It really spoke to our hearts at that point, personally and professionally. It was a really special ending for us.”
As for moments that didn’t make the final cut, Coon describes the puppet show that wound up not on the show. “It was really sweet,” she said. “So there are things you won’t see that are a part of our history.”
The different “White Lotus” groupings were mostly siloed from each other, but Monaghan singles out Patrick Schwarzenegger for being “a fantastic gentleman and not this douche you see. And I lived with Parker [Posey], and I didn’t even know Parker was utilizing a Southern accent!”
Would they do “The White Lotus” again? Bibb was bowled over by the fact that she was able to work so closely to two more actresses her age — “I never get to work with these two! Mike really knows how to write great women, and we’re so lucky to have that.”
Where might “White Lotus” end up next? Bibb agrees that White will never pick any place that’s cold. “I sent him a picture of this location I was in, it was at the Shining hotel up in Oregon, and the snow was up past the window,” she says. “He was like, ‘I’m fearful. I don’t trust where you are right now. I hate the cold..’ They’ll never do a cold one. No way.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.
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