Awkward scenes, embarrassing prosthetics, and Jennifer Coolidge's very real reservations.
Unsurprisingly, "The White Lotus" is just as exciting behind-the-scenes.
"The White Lotus" fans were excited when "Parks and Recreation" star Aubrey Plaza decided to join
the show for its second season. Plaza stars as Harper, a lawyer vacationing in Sicily with her
husband Ethan, his college friend Cameron, and Cameron's wife Daphne. After arriving at the
resort, tensions start to arise as Harper quickly realizes that she dislikes her husband's friends.
Throughout the season, Harper's judgmental tendencies ruffle more than a few feathers.
But what fans may not know is that Plaza hilariously caused some chaos off-screen, too.
While filming "The White Lotus," Plaza pulled some pretty extravagant pranks on her co-stars, which
she referred to as a "Charlie Kaufman experiment" during an interview with GQ. At one point,
she collected all the diffusers scattered around the hotel and arranged them into a creepy pattern
in the dressing room of co-star Adam DiMarco, who played Albie. Of Plaza's antics, DiMarco told GQ,
The "Child's Play" star even went so far as to mess up her own dressing room to deflect blame,
convincing the other actors that she had nothing to do with the pranks.
The setting of "The White Lotus" Season 1 is utterly breathtaking. Shot on location
at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui, episodes feature pristine blue water,
fluffy white beaches, and picturesque palm trees. While the setting was undeniably beautiful,
the location could actually get pretty distracting at times. For instance,
Natasha Rothwell, who plays Belinda in the show's first season, revealed that some of
Maui's features often made it difficult to concentrate when the cameras were rolling.
The actor recounted a particular scene she filmed on a boat alongside Jennifer Coolidge,
who plays an extremely wealthy guest named Tanya. During the scene,
Tanya scatters her mother's ashes off the side of the boat.
"I brought my mother's ashes with me, you know, so I could spread them in the ocean."
However, while filming, Rothwell found herself becoming distracted by the fascinating sea life
surrounding them, including some whales. As Rothwell told The Hollywood Reporter,
Season 2 of "The White Lotus" is filled to the brim with actions that may or
may not have secret meanings. One of the most fascinating examples of this is when Cameron,
played by Theo James, kisses his former college roommate Ethan, played by Will Sharpe,
on the cheek. The cheek kissing adds some depth to Cameron and Ethan's relationship,
which is extra fun given the fact that the first one was actually improvised. In an
interview with Variety, Sharpe revealed that the cheek kisses weren't planned, recalling,
There has been a lot of speculation about why Cameron kisses his friend so often. On Reddit,
some people are convinced that they're more than just friends,
which might explain why Ethan and his wife Harper don't have sex. But Sharpe
has a different interpretation of the action, telling Variety,
Jennifer Coolidge's character Tanya, an alcoholic grieving the recent death of her mother,
instantly became a fan favorite. The actor's performance in "The White Lotus" was so well
received that it earned Coolidge her first-ever Emmy Award in 2022. But
what some people may not know is that Coolidge's iconic performance as Tanya
almost didn't happen. In an interview with The Guardian, the actor revealed,
Things changed, however, when creator Mike White called her up and said he'd written a role for
her. Coolidge was surprised when White told her that they'd be filming right away, and that she
needed to hop on a plane to Hawaii. However, Coolidge wasn't so sure, telling The Guardian,
Despite her reservations about the project, the "Legally Blonde" star eventually signed up,
and ended up becoming one of the show's standout characters. The
fact that Coolidge almost turned down her role in "The White Lotus"
makes her performance all the more special, as she told The Guardian,
"So let's have fun, okay?"
"The White Lotus" can get pretty risqué at times. After all,
the show features honeymooning couples and extra-marital affairs aplenty. It
might come as a surprise, then, that the show's writer and creator, Mike White,
isn't the biggest fan of shooting these intimate moments. In an interview with NPR, White admitted,
Luckily for him, the show's actors were uninhibited,
which made the entire filming process much easier. As the "Enlightened" writer told NPR,
In Season 1 of "The White Lotus," Steve Zahn's character, neurotic dad Mark Mossbacher,
has a full-frontal nude scene. Fearing that he has testicular cancer, he shows his wife,
Nicole played by Connie Britton, his symptoms. Zahn actually wore a prosthetic penis for the
shoot, and got to approve the appendage himself. Despite being shocked by the scene, Zahn told GQ,
Season 2 of "The White Lotus" is also filled with wild and shocking moments. One of the
most surprising scenes is the one in which Cameron gets naked. After the episode aired,
viewers quickly took to Twitter to discuss whether or not Theo James was wearing a
prosthetic penis on screen. Fans finally got their answer when James revealed that,
like Zahn in Season 1, he was actually wearing a prosthetic. Joking about the
size of the fake appendage, James said on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,"
"The thing is ginormous and me and the director Mike White are
sitting there going, 'That's average, is it?'"
In the second season of "The White Lotus," Haley Lu Richardson plays Portia,
Tanya's Gen-Z assistant. Quickly, Portia's colorful,
idiosyncratic outfits became one of the most-discussed things about "The White
Lotus" each episode. Many fans have critiqued the outfits, with one Twitter user writing,
Another user painfully noted,
Alex Bovaird, who has served as the costume designer for both seasons of
"The White Lotus," revealed that there is a reason
Portia dresses the way she does. In an interview with People, she explained,
Meghann Fahy, who plays Cameron's wife Daphne in Season 2 of "The White Lotus," has quickly risen
to fan-favorite status since making her debut on the show. What some fans might not know is
that Fahy was originally gunning for the role of Rachel in Season 1 of "The White Lotus," which
ultimately went to Alexandra Daddario. She was undoubtedly disappointed about not getting the
role, but Fahy admitted that it was probably the right choice, telling Women's Wear Daily,
In Season 1 of "The White Lotus," Mark discovers that his late father was gay.
This is an interesting narrative arc for Mark, but more than that,
it actually bears similarities to creator Mike White's own life.
"He had two lives. He had his family, and then he had another life."
His dad, Mel White, was an evangelical pastor who ghost-wrote for figures such
as religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and evangelist Billy Graham. Due to his
association with right-wing politics, it probably came as a surprise to many
when Mel came out as gay in 1993. He subsequently became an activist
and wrote a book called "Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America."
Mike White is clearly close with his father. After winning the Emmy award
for outstanding directing for a limited series for the first
season of "The White Lotus," he gave a shout out to his parents, saying,
Season 1 of "The White Lotus" was shot under the restrictive
umbrella of COVID-19. And while that likely came with a lot of frustrating
red tape, it also had its benefits. As Alexandra Daddario explained to Forbes,
Daddario also noted that the entire cast was forced to lean
on each other when times got tough during the shoot, telling Forbes,
Appreciation for her castmates wasn't the only thing that Daddario developed during
the pandemic. She revealed that, after wearing mostly sweats and pajamas for more than a year,
getting to wear glamorous outfits on "The White Lotus" was a real treat. She explained,
When it comes to "The White Lotus," part of the fun is that each season takes place in
a new location. Rumor has it that Season 3, which has already been ordered by HBO,
will take place somewhere in Asia. In October 2022, Mike White told Deadline,
Costume designer Alex Bovaird seemed to agree with White, telling People,
While there's no concrete info on "The White Lotus" Season 3 just yet,
there's some reason to believe that Connie Britton may be reprising her
Season 1 role as Nicole. The "Friday Night Lights" star told Deadline,
If "The White Lotus" keeps on earning rave reviews,
there's no telling how many seasons we might end up with.