Parker Posey Hasn’t Seen Any of Her ‘White Lotus’ Season and “Honestly, I May Not Watch it”
The new cast of The White Lotus season three has officially checked in, this time with Thailand as their destination.
Mike White’s hit HBO anthology series welcomes Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, Lalisa Manobal (of Blackpink fame) and Patrick Schwarzenegger to the latest iteration, with Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda from season one also making a return.
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“When we did season one it was pitched to us as a limited series, one and done, and so after season two I was just cheering for everyone else, watching from home. I didn’t think there was another chapter for Belinda, so I was so excited to find out there would be,” Rothwell told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s premiere on Monday. “I said yes to Mike [White, creator] before I knew where we were going or any of the scripts. But after I binge-read all of the scripts I was so over the moon and just excited for this story.”
She also takes the rare returning-castmember slot previously held by Jennifer Coolidge, who was killed off at the end of the second season. Rothwell said of shooting without Coolidge, “It was a little bit of a phantom limb — we spent so much time together the first season, especially because we weren’t permitted to leave the resort [during COVID]. But she was so supportive and sent me some encouraging texts when it was announced that I would do it.”
Posey’s Victoria Ratliff is one of the early standouts of the season, playing a southern matriarch married to Isaacs and mother to Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola.
“She’s spoiled, she’s very much a woman-child and a narcissist — a lot of that is due to her sensitivity and her wanting to escape, which she does through taking pills,” Posey said of her character. “It came together after the strike. It was very fast and it had the feeling of Survivor meets the Amazing Race meets The White Lotus.”
She can’t tease too many plot details, though, as Posey admitted she hadn’t seen the show and wouldn’t be watching it at the premiere. “I’ll watch it at some point, in the next room,” she joked, before admitting, “Honestly, I may not watch it. I just started sweating just by the question of it. I probably should, but I don’t know.”
Speaking of sweating, Isaacs reflected on shooting in Thailand for seven months, and how “it was insanely hot most of the time. We were in these beautiful places but were there for a long time together so at times it was like paradise, at times it was like an open prison. At times it was like summer camp, at times it was like Lord of the Flies. Mean Girls, High School Musical — it was all those things.”
Goggins also spoke about the pressure of holding the season three scripts — “Even though your name is like blazed across it, you still feel like, ‘I don’t want this, I don’t want the responsibility of this'” — and the mysterious character he plays.
“Everybody else’s motivations are revealed pretty quickly. Nine are held back,” Goggins explained. “It’s a slow burn but I can promise you that if you stick with this guy there’s a big lesson for all of us I think that will resonate deeply. It’s like most of the things I do — I’m best when I’m coming from behind.”
The White Lotus premieres on HBO Feb. 16.
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