Mike White Describes ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 as ‘The Hardest Race That I’ve Ever Run’

Though they often say the third times the charm, “The White Lotus” creator Mike White began his speech at the Season 3 premiere by saying “You’re looking at somebody who just crossed the finish line of the hardest race that I’ve ever run. And I raced with a lot of you guys out there and I know it was hard for all of you too.”

The Emmy-winning HBO series that began at a resort in Maui, figuring out a way to safely shoot during the pre-vaccine days of the COVID-19 pandemic, has scaled all the way up to Phuket, Thailand with a large cast of familiar faces. In fact, in HBO CEO Casey Bloys’ speech preceding White, he said “What’s really great for me, having been at HBO for so long, you get to work with a lot of actors in different roles. We have a few HBO alumni in the cast, Natasha Rothwell, Michelle Monaghan, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Parker Posey have all been [on the network]. This is their second HBO show that they’ve done, but Carrie Coon and Walt Goggins, this is their third HBO show.”

As for the newcomers, which include Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Sam Nivola, Aimee Lou Wood, Christian Friedel, and global superstar Lisa of the K-pop group Blackpink (credited as Lalisa Manobal on the show,) he added “hopefully you’ll come back and work with us again.”

White was noticeably emotional addressing the audience of cast, crew, network executives, and supporters inside the Paramount Theatre. “I’m so happy right now. That’s how I feel because it’s like I’ve been in this theater where we had a premiere and the film broke. I’ve been at this premiere and we got bad reviews that day,” he said. “And I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s as good as it gets.”

He too addressed the present cast, saying, “Honestly, this was a hard shoot. This was not glamorous in a lot of ways. And this cast was so incredible, such great troopers, such a beautiful ensemble to work with. And I love all of you guys, and I am so appreciative of what you did for the show and the experience you gave me. And I want to especially thank Natasha Rothwell because she’s done two tours of duty with us and is just such a beautiful person.”

From the audience the Season 1 alumni, who earned an Emmy nomination for her role as Belinda, returned the favor, shouting back “I love you!”

Morgana O’Reilly, Natasha Rothwell, Julian Kostov, Carrie Coon, Mike White, Sam Nivola, Arnas Fedaravičius, Charlotte Le Bon, David Bernad, Nicholas Duvernay, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, Walton Goggins, Leslie Bibb, Tayme Thapthimthong, Lisa, Aimee Lou Wood, Sarah Catherine Hook, Parker Posey, Shalini Peiris, and Lek Patravadi attend the Los Angeles Premiere of HBO Original Series ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

In line with the perseverance it took to complete “The White Lotus” Season 3, Bloys reflected on the thought process behind proceeding with the premiere altogether in wake of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January. “Last month, we had a conversation internally. I’m sure a lot of people had similar ones. Should we cancel the event? Should we move it to another city? Should we move to another date? Is it the right tone? And we heard from our vendors here loud and clear, please don’t cancel the event, please keep it going. An event like tonight employs about 400 people, so we did decide to move forward,” he said.

So of course the after party had all the bells and whistles that one would expect from the premiere of one of HBO’s most successful series, from phuang malai (Thai flower garlands) for everyone who walked in, to a photo activation playing you inside the show’s titular resort, to a whole host of VIP attendees ranging from Chris Pratt to Paris Hilton to “Survivor” icon Parvati Shallow. But the food was the main focus, with stations curated by Chef Justin Pichetrungsi of Anajak Thai (one of the hardest reservations to get in LA,) and run by fellow Thai restaurants Cholada Thai Malibu, Miya, Thai Vegan III, who have all been forced to rebuild in wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires.

“Please visit their stations at the after party, check out their specialties and say thank you to them,” said Bloys in his speech. “And try their food because it’s really, really going to make a difference.”