(This post contains spoilers for HBO’s “The White Lotus.”.)
When Portia arrived at “The White Lotus” lamenting over wanting an adventure that would take her away from the existential dread creeping in from being constantly plugged in, she probably couldn’t imagine that she would be both “fulfilled and humbled” by what Haley Lu Richardson calls “the most twisted adventure ever.”
“I do think it checked off this like extreme box of being shaken up by life, because even though it was so twisted and heavy and dark — what was really going on with Jack and Quinten and everything — she still did get this adventure,” Richardson told TheWrap. “It was like the most twisted adventure ever, but she got it.”
After Sunday’s riveting finale killed off Tanya, leaving Portia’s future to hang in the balance, Richardson sat down with TheWrap to walk through those final moments when Portia’s doubts about Jack’s intentions crept into her mind and how she felt when she first learned Tanya’s fate.
Mike White hinted that somone might track down Greg in Season 3. Are you coming back for Season 3?
I haven’t heard anything, but sure, obviously, I’ll do it. You don’t have to ask me twice!
What was your reaction when you first learned that Tanya dies in the last episode?
When I was reading it, I was like, there’s for sure no way she’s actually dead. She’s gonna open her eyes and then just, come up [for air], or, in Season 3, she’s gonna come back as a ghost or she has a twin. Jennifer, in my mind, she just is so much the show, I just couldn’t believe it. But also, you got to keep people on their toes.
Why did Portia choose to take Jack’s advice and not return to the hotel?
Because it’s so scary. I don’t think I would have not taken his advice, because it seems like even though she’s realizing, throughout the whole episode, just how dark the situation is and how like fucked up these things could be going on are, Jack didn’t hurt her. He didn’t kill her. He didn’t pull out a gun or something. Even though it’s so ominous, I think that it’s clear to Portia he is giving one last thing to try to help her out. I think that she feels like he’s being honest about that to try to save her.
So instead she buys a really cute hat and sunglasses — actually, did she buy the sunglasses or was she stealing them? It looks like she just puts the sunglasses on in the airport and then walked away without paying for them.
When Portia arrives at the airport, she definitely suspects something nefarious happened to Tanya. When does it settle in that Tanya is probably dead, if it does at all?
When Albie says, “Did you hear one of the guests drowned in the ocean,” there’s like five seconds where Portia starts putting all that together and then processing that it’s most likely Tanya, or something to do with Tanya and the guys — or the gays.
The second she starts feeling the weight of that, she shuts down and disassociates, and then immediately asked him for his number. It’s like too much for her to fully comprehend and accept in that moment. I think that’s a really funny scene and moment.
Although she’s initially suspicious that Jack took her phone from the get-go, when does it really hit her that Jack can’t be trusted?
When she finds out that he’s not on Instagram. Honestly, I don’t know. She’s a bit slow to start putting everything together, obviously, because she’s very blinded by the excitement of him. She really starts feeling the severity of it that night at the end of Episode 6, when he’s telling her all of this dark, deeply dark truth about him and Quinten, and these very vague, twisted things. I think that’s when she’s obviously like, “Something is really wrong here.”
There was actually a moment at the end of that in Episode 6, where after Jack falls asleep, Portia quietly gets up and walks over to his shorts and pulled out his wallet from his shorts, and then looks at his ID and sees that he has a different last name than Quentin. The wheels start turning for her then of like, “Oh, they’re not related.” But then obviously, that was cut, which I think makes sense that it’s cut because it makes it a little bit less obvious and [prompts] more questions as it goes on without that information. But that night in general was a wake-up call for her.
When Portia confronts Jack and asks him to as she says “cut the shit,” her illusion is shattered as she realizes he was assigned to her the whole time. Can you walk us through how she’s feeling in that moment?
She’s feeling like she’s very much about to die, or something really bad is gonna happen to Tanya. She’s not a horrible person, she cares about Tanya.
I remember when playing those scenes, I always felt as her I guess, just frozen in this purgatory of like, “Am I literally about to die? Or am I going crazy? What’s happening?” I was in that constant state of that feeling of impending doom creeping in, but you don’t really know the truth, which is a terrifying place to be — very unsettling.
I don’t know if this came through at all, but I remember feeling in the scenes when I confronted him in the car, and then when he dropped me off in the middle of nowhere, I remember feeling like a little bit of sadness, like, so this guy never really liked me? [She feels] sadness and hurt and betrayal and like a little bit of pity.
It’s almost parallel to Tanya — these guys are try[ing] to kill her and steal all her money and then the thing that she asks while she’s killing all of them is, “Is Greg having an affair?” I feel like Portia and Tanya are actually very similar and in that moment, I remember feeling a little bit just hurt by the fact that this guy who I’ve been sleeping with, who I thought I had this whirlwind romance with, actually never really liked me and was just getting paid to hang out with me.
How have Portia’s feelings toward Albie changed since they first met? Would she want to pursue a relationship with him?
I honestly feel like with everything that Portia has gone through, and is still going through, and is about to go through even when she goes back home and does whatever she does with the aftermath of this whole death, like murder, and death, and kidnapping, and all of it, she walks into the airport, and she’s on edge and she sees Albie and he feels so safe for her. In that moment, for her, it’s like, “Oh thank goodness, this person who I can just go to and feel like safe with all this s— going on.”
I don’t know if there’s hope for them. They both definitely gone on their own journeys and had big things happened to them both that will most likely affect the trajectory of their lives and their perspectives on life and all of it. I don’t know if they’re more compatible than they were at the beginning or less. Maybe they’re a little more compatible at the end.
After this experience, do you think Portia’s existential dread is finally solved?
I don’t think it’s solved. But I do think that this whole experience she had was fulfilling and humbling in the same breath. I do think it checked off this like extreme box of being shaken up by life, because even though it was so twisted and heavy and dark — what was really going on with Jack and Quinten and everything — she still did get this adventure. It was like the most twisted adventure ever, but she got it.
On one hand, that’s so fulfilling, but then it’s also so humbling for her because she got what she wanted, but she almost died and, and her boss died and now she’s left with absolutely nothing. So it’s like, “Be careful what you wish for.” I think that hopefully she she grows from this experience. I think it could go either way.
There has been a huge craze about Portia’s fashion this season. How do you understand her style?
I care about Portia and I cared about her from the very beginning, and the very beginning started with developing her as a character and what my place was, what I could creatively and personally bring to this person on the television show. Something that I love to do is creating what they look like, what they wear, what their makeup is, everything about her and how that informs for me, and then also hopefully audiences watching, who she is.
I really think that we did that. I think that how she styles herself from her nose ring and her kinda frizzy, chaotic hair and her micro-trend, kinda cute, kinda off, so messy, unpredictable fashion. It informed me as an actor, and helped me understand her better.
I also think even the fact that people are having conversations about her style, and what that means, and how that represents her, shows me that it did what I would want it to do at the end of the day, with the actual show is like, making people see this person and have conversations and reflect on why she is the way she is, and does the way she does, dresses the way she dresses. I feel pretty good about it all.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
“The White Lotus” is now streaming in its entirety on HBO Max.