Who’s Who in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3? The Cast Breaks It Down
You know how you check the calendar every day leading up to a long-needed vacation? That’s us with “The White Lotus,” which returns to HBO on February 16. Mike White’s tense limited series moves to Thailand this season, with a (mostly) brand-new cast of characters seeking solace from their daily lives — and at least one unexpected death.
The ensemble includes a nuclear family, group of old friends, an unlikely couple, and Season 1’s Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) — among many more. Below, the cast break down who’s who in their own words, hinting at the dynamics and twists to come.
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The Girl Gang
Kate (Leslie Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon), and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) have known each other since childhood and are grateful for a weekend alone together after too long — but Jaclyn is now a famous actress living a life that her friends can never understand, and funding the trip for all three of them.
“It all goes the White Lotus way,” Monaghan told IndieWire. “It devolves quickly.”
Bibb said that even though Jaclyn is paying for the trip, she thinks it was Kate’s idea as a way to reclaim their youth: “‘Hey, maybe we do Cancun, 40s style!'”
“Kate is a bit of a perfectionist and desperate for this trip, desperate to be seen by these two women,” she said. “She gets a lot of self esteem from their gaze. I feel like she’s constantly looking to have some status — even though she has it at home I think the status she wants to have is with these women. It’s very important for her for this friendship circle to make it through this trip.”
Coon was quick to cut to the heart of Laurie, “a New York based corporate lawyer who did not get a promotion, who is failing as a mother, and whose marriage is falling apart, and she’s not telling her friends about any of it. And an alcoholic.”
What could go wrong?
The Ratliff Family
A family of five from North Carolina, the Ratliffs are in Thailand while middle sibling Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) interviews a local wellness guru for her thesis. The trip forces father Timothy (Jason Isaacs) and son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) away from their beloved finance jobs, but the rest of their family welcomes the break.
“I think was raised with a lot of money, a lot of old money,” said Parker Posey, who plays the mother Victoria. “She’s been spoiled, protected. She’s kind of an outsider, too. I think she’s eccentric and has some issues. I don’t think she’s balanced.”
That extends to her three children, who have their own individual tensions and secrets.
“Piper is very smart, a deep thinker, and has this like, really beautiful quiet strength that I really admire about her,” Hook said. “She’s a seeker, and that feels good.”
Sam Nivola, who plays youngest sibling Sam, described the 18-year-old as “a really of scared, lonely, insecure kid, who is just looking for support and love and care from anyone who will give it to him, and in whatever way they want to give it to him.”
That includes both his brother and sister, with varying results…
Rick and Chelsea
Would it be a White Lotus vacation without a squabbling couple? Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) are in a serious relationship, the kind where arguments don’t seem to faze them but they still have secrets.
“Rick, in my own words, he’s a lot like Jimmy Fallon,” said Goggins. “He’s got a big personality, always joking around, bit like Danny McBride — no, he’s a troubled man. He’s a person who’s been running from his past for a very long time. He’s angry and he’s bitter about the world around him and the life that he’s lived. He is on the other side of an experience that I think we all have at some point in our life — however small or big — this event that happens that makes you begin to take inventory and ask the question, ‘How did I get here?’ and who’s responsible for where I am?'”
“Chelsea doesn’t really know why she’s at the White Lotus,” Wood told IndieWire. “She finds out as the show goes on. And she’s not really a typical White Lotus guest — she’s a bit of a misfit. She’s just there for the ride and it’s all just kind of a mystery to her, which is quite nice because it’s a mystery to the audience as well.”
The White Lotus Family
Finally, there’s Mook, described by BLACKPINK’s Lalisa Manobal as “a sweet girl” who has a “cute relationship” with Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong). Both of them work at the White Lotus and are mostly removed from guest drama — at least for now.
“He’s a very friendly, lovable, happy go lucky guy,” said Thapthimthong, along with the fact that Gaitok’s “main purpose” this season is to train Mook’s attention.
But if there’s one person who has the audience’s focus from the outset, it’s Belinda, on a mission to expand her wellness knowledge and move her career forward — without a wealthy benefactor.
“She was hurt so badly Season 1, so I think she was just trying to process that grief,” Rothwell told IndieWire. “When you dare to tell someone your dreams that’s really vulnerable, like that is ass-out vulnerable, and she did that with a complete stranger and had her hopes dashed. How do you dream again after that? How do you trust again after that? So I think she went on a bit of a healing journey.”
“The White Lotus” premieres Sunday February 16 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
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