by Intoxicating, sexy, seductive and taut are all words that describe the second season of Mike White’s Emmy-winning HBO show The White Lotus (premiering Oct. 30 at 9 p.m. ET, on Crave in Canada), this time in Sicily, with the return of Jennifer Coolidge and Jon Gries, plus new additions Michael Imperioli, F. Murray Abraham, Aubrey Plaza and Theo James.
The show’s second season begins with hotel guest Daphne (Meghann Fahy) taking one last dip in the water at the beach before her vacation ends, but ends up screaming when she encounters a floating corpse. Resort manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) arrives, amid the police presence, and it is revealed that “a few” corpses of hotel guests have been found in the water.
Much like the first season, we then travel back in time to a week earlier with a group of guests from the White Lotus resort arriving by boat, greeted by the property’s employees, as we watch the events unfold that have led to this deadly discovery.
The only remaining guests from the first season are Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and her husband Greg (Jon Gries), who met at the White Lotus property in Hawaii. As Coolidge told reporters, she didn’t initially expect to be back for the show’s second season.
“I didn’t think there would be any sort of repeat thing…so I was glad we got to tell the story of what happened with Greg and Tanya, because it never happened. been brought up, I’ve never heard that from Mike,” Coolidge said. “I love that chapter two is very different from chapter one,…more stuff happened and time has past, and it’s quite interesting how something starts out so romantic, even with [Greg’s] disease, and then how it can lead to something you never thought would happen.
While Coolidge won an Emmy for her portrayal of Tanya in Season 1 of The Lotus Whileshe admits that her “insecurity never lets up”.
“I wasn’t more confident on White Lotus Two,” Coolidge said. “It’s kind of weird how the world works in the sense that nobody wants to be the first person to give you a chance.”
“Nobody wants to give you the jackpot because they don’t know if you can do it and they don’t want to take the risk. So Mike White did that in a really big way for me because it just wasn’t happening. not and if it hadn’t worked it would have been a terrible thing for him because he would have gotten in trouble with HBO or whatever I’m just glad he gave me this gift this great role and then what he does,… then other people are like, ‘OK so maybe you’re not going to mess it up’, maybe, if they give you a shot.
“I think the second season is even better”
A bit like in the first season of The White Lotuseach guest, or combination of guests, comes to the property with their own personal dramas.
In season 2, we meet three generations of Di Grasso’s men, Albie with his father Dominic, and Dominic’s father, Bert (played by Adam DiMarco, Michael Imperioli and F. Murray Abraham respectively), who traveled to Italy to get closer to their Italian heritage. . Dominic is a sex-addicted Hollywood bigwig whose rampant infidelity broke his marriage to Albie’s mother, but his father Bert’s relationship with women is quite similar.
“I can’t remember playing a character that I enjoyed as much as this for a long time,” said F. Murray Abraham. “It’s just a pleasure. He’s funny, he’s outrageous and charming and I feel like I know and love him, I forgive his sins because I’m trying to forgive my own thing.
Michael Imperioli said, when watching the first season of The White Lotus, he was particularly impressed with how Mike White found “humanity” in a group of characters who were “very easy to be cynical and judgmental about”. Going into Season 2, this beautiful character creation remains.
“Mike and I talked about sex addiction and how they say, in recovery…that you have to define yourself, only you can say you’re an addict, you have to come to that realization no matter what it says. a doctor, or a therapist, or a peer, or a family member, until you come to that realization and accept it, you can’t really begin to heal,” Imperioli said. think [Dominic] denied that for a long time, but I think that’s why this trip, right now, is maybe a turning point in his life where he’s going to be able to sort of get that under control.
For Canadian actor Adam DiMarco to be cast in a role where he works so closely with award-winning actors Imperioli and Abraham. One of DiMarco’s humorously standout scenes happened on his first day on the job and is shown in the first episode, where Albie goes to bed with his grandfather, after a fall, and Bert starts farting. Many times.
“Working with Michael and Murray, coming into the show, I was a little intimidated at first because they’re such acclaimed, amazing actors and I’m just this Canadian boy,” DiMarco said.
“The second we started getting to know each other… [we’d] talk about the themes of the show, talk about our fathers, our relationship with our fathers, talk about sex or relationship to sex. They both have such great stories that it was just fun to be a fly on the wall for some of those conversations. When it came to working and doing the scenes, I felt very comfortable with them, and maybe I’m projecting, but sometimes I felt like our relationship dynamic was similar to that of series.
Relatable Torque Dynamics
The White Lotus Season 2 also introduces us to two pairs of couples, Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Cameron (Theo James), and Ethan (Will Sharpe) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza). Harper is skeptical as to why Cameron, a roommate of Ethan, actually invited them on the trip, and isn’t shy about pointing out how vain Cameron and Daphne are, but we also see that her relationship with Ethan may not be as stable as they think. .
“When you meet [Ethan], it seems somehow, and Ethan and Harper together, their relationship is in a certain place where they tell each other that they are good together, that they love each other, that they are honest with each other. each other, but are they actually as honest with each other as they think they are about the toughest issues they carry? Will Sharpe said.
“I love the kind of journey, the peaks and valleys, that the characters go through and being able to show all the colors and sides of Harper was really challenging, but really fun,” Aubrey Plaza added.
“I think it’s very relevant to deal with these couples who are having issues with their marriage and seeing them at a low point in their marriage. I think it’s always interesting to dive into that dynamic when people have been together for a really long time and they’re kind of trying to rekindle their relationship and rekindle the fire. I think it’s so relevant, so I loved it.
‘The more you are stupid, the more it works’
What connects all these characters? Much like in the first season, resort manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) juggles her guests’ demands, while pursuing her own personal journey.
“I was very surprised that [Mike White] was directing me in a way that I had to be repulsive, aggressive, harsh,” Sabrina Impacciatore said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re going to hate me. What can I do?’ And I was really, really worried, but he kept telling me, ‘Sabrina, the bitchier you are, the better it works.'”
“So when I finally got to play the other role of Valentina, the other side of Valentina, I loved going in that direction that was totally opposite. Exploring the hidden garden that she wanted to protect, because she was so vulnerable and so innocent, like a little child who does not know herself, and that she learns to know herself through [meeting] people who resonate with her.”
Only in the second season of The White Lotusthe hotel staff is not the only bridge between all the customers, there are also Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Mia (Beatrice Grannò), friends and sex workers who call many hotel customers , much to Valentina’s dismay.
“We wanted to bring that softness because I think what really stands out when you look at it, … there’s so much softness, but what they’re doing on the outside, it’s not soft at all, but when they’re together, they really root for each other,” Grannò said.
“We also leaned into each other’s personalities and what we already knew about each other, and traded pieces of ourselves throughout filming, which is exactly what happens to the characters. “, added Tabasco, via a translator.
Season 1 vs. Season 2 of ‘The White Lotus’
For everyone who loved Season 1 of The White Lotusthe second season has similar beats, but has a different energy, which much of the cast pointed out to be due to the location, filming in Sicily where the location almost becomes a character in itself.
It is likely that some will be tempted to compare the specifics of season 1 with season 2, but The White Lotus remains one of the best shows to watch, unrivaled in its character development.
“I don’t think it’s that different that someone who actually answered that in Season 1 would be disappointed,” Meghann Fahy said.
“I hope people go into the second season with low expectations and I think that’s probably a very difficult thing to do. [Mike White] really isn’t what people expect of him and he’s also not the kind of person who’s interested in fixing something that someone had a problem with the first time around, that’s not the kind of guy… So I think people might be surprised at these little ways he chooses to think outside of… the form of a show that has multiple seasons, he kind of breaks that mold to his way.
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