The White Lotus was undoubtedly the biggest series on television this month. With its critically-lauded third season having just ended, millions of viewers from all across the world are currently spooling through the well-hidden easter eggs and analyzing on-screen imagery to make sense of what happened in the finale.
With filming taking place over a period of seven months, followed by nearly a year delay until the third season of The White Lotus finally made it to air, showrunner Mike White, the wider cast, and the crew had to work hard to prevent secrets and spoilers being unveiled ahead of time. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the main players of The White Lotus’s third outing reveal just what was going on behind the camera.
The third series was initially meant to be shot in Japan
Mike White wasn’t initially keen on filming in Thailand; he had bad memories of the country after he and his dad were eliminated from the American reality competition The Amazing Race when they were there last. However, he settled on Thailand after HBO executives pointed out that the country had better tax breaks for filming.
White added that Thailand was better suited to motifs that are common in The White Lotus.
“I’ve dabbled in Buddhism, and Thailand worked for the themes that I was trying to get into,” he said. “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?’”
Woody Harrelson was originally cast as Rick
While we can’t imagine anyone else but character actor Walton Goggins playing the vengeful Rick, reports have indicated he was not the first actor that signed on to play the part.
Woody Harrelson, who you may recognize from the True Detective TV series, or films such as Zombieland, Natural Born Killers, or the Hunger Games franchise, was initially all set to play the brooding (almost) assassin. However, Harrelson was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, per The Hollywood Reporter’s sources.
One person who nearly didn’t land the part was Patrick Schwarzenegger— and it was all due to his famous parentage.
“We didn’t want to cast him because of that,” producer David Bernad admitted. “[But] he was just so good.”
The lead cast members were all paid the same
Working on The White Lotus is a democratic affair; Bernad explained that no singular star gets top billing out of the ensemble cast, and the credits are listed in alphabetical order.
All of the cast members were paid the same amount (thought to be around $40,000 per episode), and everyone had to audition for their role.
Extreme lengths were taken to keep Greg’s return a secret
It was a (nasty) surprise in episode one when we saw Greg (aka Gary, played by Jon Gries) sat at a dining table, enjoying a meal at the hotel.
The crew intended this big reveal to be shocking to viewers, with everyone banding together to make Gries’ return to set as hushed as possible.
“There was no press release for him, no premiere, no photos,” Bernad said. “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.”
Some of the cast admitted being scared of taking pictures with Gries on their phones. Meanwhile, Gries himself concocted a cover story to explain his absence. “I told people I was going to the Philippines to film a new TV show for a European network,” he said. “I’m using this as a platform to apologize to everybody that I’ve lied to.”
There are some storylines that didn’t make the series
While the shocking incest scene stayed in, not all of White’s ideas were indulged. As part of this year’s toxic trio, southern belle Kate (played by Leslie Bibb) was meant to have quite an intense dream sequence—but it didn’t make the final cut.
“[There were] ladyboys and ping-pong and everything was glowing,” Bibb explained. “It was also kind of like The Shining. There just wasn’t room for it.”
“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,” White agreed. “As a writer, I got a little indulged.”
Not even those who worked on the show knew how the series would end
The White Lotus producer Bernad explained that a number of ‘alternative’ endings were written to keep the identity of the body—and the killer—on a purely need-to-know basis.
“Our script supervisor wrote these crazy fake endings that we distributed on set,” he said. “We didn’t distribute the real last script. People on set didn’t know, except the actors, obviously.”
We could see a White Lotus All Stars…
With White unafraid of bringing back other White Lotus alumni (Belinda, played by Natasha Rothwell, also returned this season, while Jennifer Coolidge's beloved Tanya starred in two seasons), Schwarzenegger suggests he’s “heard rumors” that we could see an all-star edition of The White Lotus in the future. White says he “would love that”, so perhaps we will see more familiar faces in seasons to come.
…but don’t expect a ski season
“I’d bet $100,000 we don’t end up in the cold next,” Bernad said. “Even if we flirted with the idea, Mike just wouldn’t want to be in the cold. He hates it.”
