Acting in the latest edition of "The White Lotus" is like "living inside a screensaver," says star Natasha Rothwell.
Because it was shot in Thailand, the drama gave her - and others in the cast - a real sense of the spirituality that envelops the country.
"It was very authentic," says Rothwell, who plays Belinda, the White Lotus staffer from the first season. "I had spent a year in Tokyo in my 20s, but I'd never been to Thailand, and this was my first time there. What I learned was that Thailand has never been colonized. To be shooting and working in a country that isn't constantly trying to heal from historical trauma, you feel that lightness, you feel that acceptance. You feel that peace."
That helped set the tone for a look at religion and spirituality, says Mike White, the series' creator, and seemed like the perfect welcome mat for a group of tourists rocked by chaos.
In addition to Belinda - who's the series' glue this season - there's a rich Southern family (led by Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey), three lifelong friends (Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bigg), a combative couple (Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood) and resort workers who have their own dramas to consider.
White's goal was to continue the discussion about the differences that divide people. Class and culture got an airing in the first season; sex and gender politics emerged in the second. Now with religion in the third, there's a chance to look at people "wanting to be their ideal self" and revealing "the base kind of animal creatures that they can be," White says.
That divide can emerge from a simple conversation - as the three friends discover - or from a night of debauchery aboard a yacht - as two brothers, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola, learn.
"It's like a petri dish," Nivola says of the resort. "You just plop us in where we have to be so close ... hit play, and see what happens."
Particularly in later episodes, those facades drop and true identities begin to emerge.
A reason to return
For Belinda, the Thailand trip is an opportunity to gain back what she lost. In the first season, Jennifer Coolidge's character promised to set her up in her own business, then reneged. That left her with a hollow feeling and forced her to regroup. Now, in Thailand, she might find that missing sense of worth.
White was interested in bringing the character back after the first season because there was so much he didn't get to explore. "People were bummed by Belinda's final moments in the first season where everybody's off and she's still working at the hotel and her dreams were dashed," he says. "I was just like, 'It'd be fun to maybe give Belinda another chapter and work with Natasha again.'"
Rothwell didn't need to be persuaded to rejoin.
She met with him while he was shooting the second season and he said, "I think I might want to bring Belinda back."
"I was like, 'Say less. I'll be there,'" Rothwell recalls.
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Separation is key
To make the separate stories work, White shot scenes involving the three friends first. That gave the actresses a chance to explore the tenuous ties that apparently bind them. The three shared childhood pictures before they went to Thailand and tried to find common ground.
"We were all shot out of a cannon at the same time together," Bibb says. "Who you were when you were growing up and who you've become can be very different people." In the story, they see how time has divided them. "Can we still love each other if we have some differing views? Is it more important to have that foundation where somebody really knows you or is it better to just have new friends?"
The three get the opportunity to explore both worlds.
Too close for comfort
The brothers get their "a-ha" moments, too.
Schwarzenegger thought his character might just be a "frat boy douche" until White pointed out some significant differences. He also told him, "It's OK if they don't change...not everyone changes in a week."
Some of the character's reactions are so out there, Schwarzenegger says, he may have to leave the room when his family watches the series. "There's some uncomfortable conversations (between brothers) in the bed that are a little weird to show in front of your family," he explains. "Episodes five and six, there'll be some times that I take some bathroom breaks when (watching with the family) ... or maybe I won't watch that episode with them."
As luxurious as the resort was, the actors say the real lure was White's writing.
"It's very rare that you come across writing that is so three-dimensional," Isaacs says. "And Mike rather brilliantly introduces what seem like one-dimensional characters and adds things to them, peels the layers away and put them in impossible, pressure-cooker situations until the only thing that can emerge is their essential humanity."
Rothwell extols White's work as director. "He's so open in collaborating and he's very aware he's not a black woman," she says. "So, to be able to work with him on pages and pitch ideas to help ground the character...it's such a dream. It's an honor to get to play her and it's also been an honor to sort of collaborate in the execution."
"The White Lotus," season three, is now airing on HBO/MAX.
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