After filming the first two seasons in Hawaii and Italy, Mike White wanted to take the third season of The White Lotus to Asia. His initial choice of location was Japan, but HBO pushed for Thailand. Interestingly, White had a history with Thailand and he absolutely hated the place.
If you don’t know anything about White, he had made appearances in a few reality shows including Survivor. He and his father were part of the 14th season of The Amazing Race, where they were eliminated in the seventh leg of the competition in Thailand.
He was still a little bitter from the loss and didn’t want to go back to Thailand. However, he eventually conceded because he saw that many of the themes he had planned for a third season of The White Lotus worked perfectly well in Thailand.
Mike White initially wanted The White Lotus Season 3 in Japan, but HBO pushed for Thailand
Mike White opened up about how Japan was his intended choice of location for the third season of The White Lotus in an interview with THR. He explained that he didn’t want to be in Thailand, where he and his father got eliminated and were placed sixth in The Amazing Race Season 14.
However, he shared that HBO pushed for Thailand because of the great tax incentives. HBO Chief Casey Bloys added that the country had a great infrastructure suitable for filming such a popular production. White shared with THR:
Originally, I wanted to shoot in Japan. I was in Thailand when my dad and I got eliminated from The Amazing Race — two weeks in an elimination station with all these other bitter reality contestants, I was just like, ‘I don’t ever want to come back here.’ But HBO was really pushing it because Thailand had good tax incentives. As an artist, your knee-jerk reaction is, ‘I’m not doing that!’
White, along with producer David Bernad, decided to visit Thailand as a courtesy to HBO. White hadn’t still made up his mind about the location. He fell sick with bronchitis during his visit and was admitted to a hospital in Chiang Mai for two days.
He shared that it was during his time lying in the hospital bed that he came up with the idea for the third season. Bernad shared, “I saw Mike the next morning, and he told me what he’d hallucinated. That’s basically what we shot.”
White eventually thought Thailand would be the right choice, sharing, “I’ve dabbled in Buddhism, and Thailand worked for the themes that I was trying to get into.” The series will air its final episode of the season on April 6.
The star-studded cast of The White Lotus Season 3 auditioned for their roles
Over the three seasons of The White Lotus, Mike White has brought on a brilliant bunch of cast every season. This season also had some pretty great cast including Walton Goggins, Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, Lisa from Blackpink, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Aimee Lou Wood, Sam Rockwell, and others.
During the interview with THR, Carrie Coon shared that the roles in the show are highly coveted by her peers, which put a lot of pressure on her. She shared, “Everyone auditions for The White Lotus.” Michelle Monaghan shared that she was excited when she got 10 pages of the third season for her audition.
White didn’t know who Lisa was but when he found out that her appearance could potentially pose some security issues, he was reluctant at first. However, the Blackpink singer was ready to audition for the role. Bernad shared about her, “Lisa was so humble and she’d worked so hard on her performance. This was someone fighting for this part.”
The show doesn’t pay its stars based on their star value. Everyone in the show is treated the same, according to Bernad, and they have the same pay structure. He shared that it was decided during the first season due to the budget constraints of the show. Hence, the show only got people who wanted to do the project for the right reasons.
The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 8 will drop on HBO on April 6. Old episodes of the show are now available for streaming on Max.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
