Get ready to check into “The White Lotus” in Thailand for Season 3 — this time, sadly, there’s no room for Jennifer Coolidge, who went overboard in the second season.
With the absence of her fan-favorite character Tanya comes the opportunity for other characters to win over the audience, when it returns to screens on Sky and HBO this Sunday.
Vying for your love or loathing at the indulgent Thailand outpost is Michelle Monaghan’s vacationing TV actor and Aimee Lou Wood’s cool Brit. Natasha Rothwell is back as spa manager Belinda, herself a victim of Tanya’s flighty financial ways in the first season. Blackpink’s Lisa makes her acting debut as a resort employee.
As before, in Mike White’s anthology series, the rich holidaymakers are unable to upgrade themselves away from the sense of menace that lurks around the landscaped hotel grounds.
The cast? They’re having a much better time.
A nightmare stay is a dream job
Monaghan cried when she found out she got the role of TV star Jaclyn.
“It was such a big deal and it’s such an exciting opportunity,” she explained, adding that she opened a bottle of Champagne to celebrate. As the show is popular, critically acclaimed and filmed in exotic locations, Monaghan, who recently featured in Apple TV+’s “Bad Monkey,” agrees that starring in White’s prestige drama is “hands down, no doubt about it” the best job on television.
Rothwell agrees with her. She returns as Belinda, who worked at the Hawaii resort, home to Season 1.
“I don’t know what I did in a previous life to deserve this, but I’m so grateful to be a part of this family,” Rothwell says.
Viewers told Rothwell that they were mad at the affluent Tanya for not investing in Belinda’s dreams in the first season. The actor attributes this enthusiastic fandom to the show’s initial release during the coronavirus-related lockdowns.
“That’s what people wanted at a time when the world was at a standstill,” she says. “It gave people a chance to sort of imagine and dream and watch the world of high-class vacationing and seeing the underbelly of it.”
There was a bit of jet lag
Not all the of cast found seven months away from home easy. Wood, who previously starred in Netflix’s “Sex Education,” says that living and working on location got “very claustrophobic.”
“Usually you wrap and you go home. But it was like, wrap … and then I would walk five steps to my little room. And then I’d be having breakfast in the morning and be like, ‘Hi,’ to all the crew that walking past,” she explains. Looking back on it now, she treasures the experience before she finally went home to “remember” who she was. “It’s like ‘The Truman Show,'” she joked.
Rothwell’s struggles were less existential, centering instead on the reptilian extras. Her character is half-guest and half-staff, in Thailand on a work trip to learn new rejuvenation techniques to take back to Hawaii.
“I’m very delicate when it comes to green, slimy things. So I had to tap into Belinda’s approach to peace and calm and meditation when I would see those little guys,” says Rothwell, who created and starred in “How to Die Alone.”
Thailand gets top billing
Each season, the cast ventures to a new White Lotus resort in vacation hot spots. This time, along with the scene-stealing monkeys (and reptiles), Thailand itself gets more of a storyline than Hawaii or Sicily did in the first two seasons.
Monaghan says that the characters (and therefore the cast) got to explore on a sightseeing tour: “They really leave the actual White Lotus resort. We see them discovering local joints and they really take in everything that Thailand has to offer. And I think that’s a real departure from what we’ve seen before. And I think it makes the scope of the show feel a lot bigger.”
“Audiences, too, will really love seeing so much of this country,” agrees Rothwell. “It feels like another character.”
What name is the reservation under?
Monaghan’s Jaclyn is on a girls trip with two old school friends, played by Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb. Like her character, Monaghan has struggled to find time to get away with her friends and finds White’s portrayal of the female dynamics true to life.
“I think he tagged along on a girls trip,” she says, describing him as “a real keen observer of human behavior” and “like a sponge.”
“So I think maybe he’d had a similar experience and so he was like, he wanted to bring that into the show,” she added.
Wood’s Chelsea has all the vibes and wardrobe of a vacationing Kate Moss. She’s staying with her older partner Rick (Walton Goggins), who is not much fun to be around.
“She gets some really great lines, Mike has gifted me with that character,” says Wood. “She has got that like rock star girlfriend thing, but her heart is just so gentle.”
There are more women who play staff or vacationers. Blackpink’s Thai singer Lisa, credited here as Lalisa Manoban, stars as Mook — one of the health mentors helping to pamper the guests, alongside Sri Lankan actor Shalini Peiris.
Lisa managed to fit in making her acting debut around working on her upcoming album “Alter Ego.”
“I’m a huge fan of ‘The White Lotus,'” she told The Associated Press at the Los Angeles premiere of the season Monday. “I’m just so happy to be on this.”
Thailand’s Lek Patravadi plays a White Lotus owner — she’s also the resident diva, fabulously dressed and worshipped as such. Soaking up the sun in a family suite is Parker Posey, living the lavish lifestyle of Victoria Ratliff, who is staying with her husband (Jason Isaacs), two sons and daughter Piper, portrayed by Sarah Catherine Hook.
Getting beach-ready
“It was literally like marinating yourself in 100% humidity,” explains Monaghan of her weekly fake tan sessions, endured to get the golden glow of her sun-worshipping character.
“Every Sunday I was applying that fake tan and waiting all while my co-stars were down at the beach, you know, enjoying the sunset, having a beer. I was like in my hotel room waiting for this spray tan to dry,” recalls Monaghan.
Wood got a real tan for the first time in her life. Despite being, in her own words, “translucent,” spending seven months in Thailand gave her a slight color.
“Makes sense why I’ve never got one in like a two-week holibobs,” quips Wood.
The plus-one question
How do they each rank as potential travel companions? Wood reckons her laid-back character would be a great person to go on holiday with.
“Chelsea honestly could sit outside like a 7-Eleven and have a beer. As long as she had someone to chat to, she just doesn’t mind,” she says. “Although she doesn’t stop talking. But that’s also like me, she is a yapper.”
Rothwell says Belinda’s hospitality knowledge makes her an excellent vacation buddy.
“She’s just a people person and I’m not in real life, like she’s good with people and I’m very much an introvert and, you know, have social anxiety and get nervous tons and I feel like Belinda would get me out of my shell,” Rothwell laughs.
And Monaghan’s Jaclyn has a lot (of money) going for her as a plus-one.
“You’re going to have a good time and she’s paying for it too,” says Monaghan, “so definitely go on holiday with her.”
