Carrie Coon Describes Shooting Season 3 of ‘The White Lotus’ as ‘Very, Very Challenging’

Mike White and HBO may be keeping their “White Lotus” Season 3 cast tight-lipped in regards to revealing plot details on the upcoming entry, but that hasn’t stopped them from sharing how production on the anthology series upended their lives emotionally. Discussing the shoot during a recent interview with Parade, Emmy-nominee Carrie Coon expressed the difficulties everyone faced both as a result of torrential downpours and by being sequestered away with a small group of people.

“It was very, very challenging,” Coon says. “It created a lot of obstacles because we had to keep moving around every time there was bad weather. I think we moved around nine times, so the logistics were tough because who wants to see rainy, cold Thailand?”

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Though the work may have been difficult, it seems Coon made it up for it with play, as she spoke of “wild nights” with the dynamic cast, which includes Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Michelle Monaghan, Walton Goggins, and Season 1 returnee Natasha Rothwell.

“It’s like we remade society and had our own culture,” Coon said to Parade. “And everyone was so far from home. It unmoors you.”

Goggins shared similar sentiments with IndieWire while discussing his experience in Thailand.

“When you are sequestered for six months and all you have is each other, one can imagine that people get very, very close and familial and you’re roughing it out in five star accommodations, but the experience is so creative and psychologically — it’s a psychological experiment as much as it is a creative endeavor,” Goggins said. He added later, “It’s the longevity of the experience and the intensity of the experience that you have to have some mental fortitude to get through.”

Coon had previously spoken on her appreciation for White’s series earlier this year and her belief that the show is just getting bigger. Speaking to Vanity Fair for the “Little Gold Men” podcast, Coon said, “I think he’s playing with some really interesting dynamics. I think it’s something he would continue to do if they let him, because I think he would like to get bigger and more international and put together weirder groups of people — that’s what he’s passionate about. And I think that’s important in this world, to see people banging up against each other in this way. Of course, he’s satirizing rich white people, and he’s doing it very well. He’s really speaking to people who need to be spoken to in a really interesting way. He had a season about money; he had a season about sex. And this is his season about death.”

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