When Mike White launched “The White Lotus” in 2021 as a limited series, the production was confined by pandemic protocols, making for a small-in-scope yet star-studded season.
“We weren’t allowed to leave the hotel,” said executive producer Dave Bernad, who’s worked alongside White for the past 20 years and on each installment of “The White Lotus,” recalled of Season 1. “It was a lot of scenes of people sitting around and people talking, and in [Season] 2, we were coming off of COVID, and we … opened up the world a little bit.”
Four years later, the HBO series tackled its most ambitious undertaking yet in the Thailand-set Season 3, which brings viewers everywhere from the streets of Phuket for the water-filled Thai New Year to the Muay Thai boxing ring. While Season 2 also took filming outside of the White Lotus resort across Sicily, Italy, Bernad said the scope of the third installment is “much bigger than the last two seasons.”
“The production shoot was 30% longer than Season 2,” Bernad told TheWrap. “We had a much bigger cast, and the amount of technical work we were doing is so much bigger in terms of stunts, action sequences.”
“It was night and day,” returning star Natasha Rothwell added, comparing shooting Seasons 1 and 3. “We were literally marooned in a hotel on an island … and it was very contained … in Season 3, we are free. It’s huge and expansive. You really get to see why these characters are there in the first place, and what they’re there to experience.”
The first two installments of “The White Lotus” were graced by plenty of TV favorites — including Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza and Michael Imperioli. Season 3 continues that tradition, welcoming Walton Goggins, Parker Posey, Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Jason Isaacs, just to name a few.
Still, even with the show’s critical acclaim and widespread popularity, Season 3 features a handful of on-the-rise talent, including “The Perfect Couple” actor Sam Nivola, “Cruel Intentions” reboot star Sarah Catherine Hook and Blackpink’s Lisa, a Thailand native making her acting debut this season.
Though Bernad said he and the team haven’t changed their approach to casting — which is to “cast people that feel authentically tied to the part” — he admitted, “as the show has become more popular, definitely there’s been more incoming phone calls.
“[We’re] not focusing on casting stars, but casting the right person for that part,” he added. “That’s really been our ethos from the beginning.”
As “The White Lotus” transitioned from a limited series to an anthology series — which Bernad recalled being “off the table” during its initial conception — bringing back Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid for Season 2 was a natural way for White to build out the world. After a fatal twist for Tanya in the Season 2 finale, that thread “naturally extended” toward the Season 3 return of Rothwell’s Belinda, with Bernad saying “it all just naturally led us back to Belinda.”
“As a viewer, you want to know what happened to Belinda after Season 1,” Bernad said. “It’s really emotional and rewarding to get to pick up with her and go on a new journey with her and and see her in a new setting.”
Tanya left Belinda high and dry at the end of Season 1 after promising to help her open up her own spa. Season 3 finds Belinda now as a guest at the White Lotus Thailand, where she’s training with the wellness staff in hopes of bringing some of their practices back to Maui. Rothwell said returning to the series was a “pinch me moment,” recalling the reunion with the show’s crew.
“I was so excited to be able to bring the character back and share more of her story,” Rothwell said.
After traveling to Hawaii and Italy over the course of Seasons 1 and 2, where the show centered its focus on money and sex, respectively, “The White Lotus” found its next destination in Thailand, where White turned his attention to death, Eastern religion and spirituality. Filming in Thailand, meanwhile, presented its own set of production challenges, especially when it came to sound.
“There are times where you’re filming and there’s exotic animals. You’re hearing lions roaring and cicadas chirping and things that you don’t anticipate that impact production in a way that you wouldn’t think of unless you’ve done it,” Bernad said. “That’s the magic of Thailand, though, all those elements — that’s why we went there to shoot.”
“I had takes ruined from elephants roaring,” Bibb told TheWrap. Coon, who joins Bibb and Monaghan as a group of longtime girlfriends reuniting, added berries, tree frogs, cicadas and boats to the list of filming disruptions. “I’ve never had those obstacles.”
For Nivola, who plays the on-screen son of Posey and Isaacs’ characters, he admitted that working on big-budget, high-profile productions can often come with added pressure. But he applauded how the “White Lotus” felt “tight-knit,” saying “it was a real community.”
“This was technically the biggest season budget-wise, but it didn’t feel too overwhelmingly big,” Hook, who plays Nivola’s sister, told TheWrap. “I didn’t feel like I was at a theme park, which can keep you feeling safer too when you’re doing your work.”
As Bernad and White learned to rely on local producers to navigate Thailand’s filmmaking culture, the EP noted that cast and crew leaned on each other throughout the shoot. “I think [it] forced us all to become a family and we all really relied on each other for that companionship,” Bernad added.
With White writing, directing and showrunning every episode of “The White Lotus,” Bernad said helping him avoid burnout was an “everyday conversation,” but noted the team “upped our fitness game” this season, with a handful of the cast and crew wearing whoops, which track sleep and fitness. “It became this competitive thing [about] who can stay in shape the best and who can get the most sleep,” Bernad. “Mike would read out the scores every morning and judge us — I think that was helpful.”
“I really felt for Mike, because the third season needs to pack a punch,” Posey said, adding that the shoot felt like “an extreme sport.”
Bernad also noted the team’s commitment to showing Thailand beyond the “primitive understanding” of the country as seen in “The Hangover” and other Western portrayals, which spotlights “Full Moon Party, sex, tourism and crazy partying.”
“It’s always from the perspective of the outsiders, of the guests. But it kind of taps into so much of the beauty of Buddhism,” Bernad said, adding the show spotlights the “country-wide water fight” during Thai New Year as well as the beauty of Muay Thai boxing. “The spirituality of Buddhism — the nonviolence, deeply existential nature of Buddhism — impacts your daily interactions.”
While critics have noted the third installment has felt darker than its predecessors, Bernad disagrees, instead calling the season “more emotional,” teasing that viewers will go on “a more emotional journey than they have in previous seasons.”
“The show just is also different from the last two seasons,” Bernad said. “I’m just happy that we didn’t try to kind of copy or emulate what we’ve done in the past and try to do something new and different.”
“The White Lotus” Season 3 premieres Sunday, Feb. 16 on HBO and Max.
