While it’s going to be awhile before I’m all saved up for my next trip abroad, thanks to The White Lotus returning for Season 3 on the 2025 TV schedule this weekend, I can live vicariously through a slew of well-to-do characters. After previous seasons took us to Hawaii and Italy, this time around the cast ventured off to Thailand, and while I thought it would have spelled “dream job and vacation” for them, I was surprised to hear what being abroad to film the show was actually like.
The cast spent seven months in the Southeast Asian country for the greater part of last year at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. When CinemaBlend caught up with the youngest cast members, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola, who play two of the the children of Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey’s characters, on the one hand the stay was exactly what I imagined when I think of The White Lotus luxury.
Sarah: “There was actually a pillow menu. You could order a different type of pillow. It was ridiculous.”
Sam: "It's a level of luxury that is just absurd.”
Sarah: “And, like, shouldn't exist.”
A pillow menu?? Now, that’s a whole new level of fancy!
The Season 3 cast includes Fallout’s Walter Goggins, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Patrick Schwarzenegger and the return of Natasha Rothwell as Belinda from Season 1. They got the chance to work on one of the best TV shows on right now crafted by the great Mike White.
The actors credited Mike White for being “so supportive," all in the middle of playing two teens from the South that take a family vacation to aid the thesis Hook’s Piper is working on.
Why Filming The White Lotus Is Not Exactly What I Thought It Would Be
That being said, as you’ll see in the already critically-acclaimed Season 3, much of the show takes place entirely on the resort, and the cast I spoke to felt that on set as well. Sarah Catherine Hook compared it to "a golden cage," and it squares with what we've heard from other seasons.
I've been calling it a golden cage. We could leave, but it was not always easy to leave. It was frowned upon. And we have everything here. Why would you leave? Why would you need to leave? No, but we went out, especially towards the end. I feel like we got more comfortable exploring and, and especially in Phuket. Like we got to take a bunch of boat trips and stuff.
These comments square with what happened when the OG season of The White Lotus filmed in Hawaii amidst a pandemic backdrop. While the hotel experience may have been comfortable, it wasn't always so simple leaving and exploring while the show was in between scenes, and I was surprised to hear the experience may not have been exactly what I imagined in my mind.
Champagne problems, sure, but I definitely thought cast would have oodles of stories about their adventures in Thailand, and it sounds like instead it was a lot of it was a lot of hotel time. Jason Isaacs added to the conversation by saying this:
Well, I expected to meet everyone and hang out quickly and early on. But in fact, the first place we went to was the Four Seasons of Koh Samui which is this gigantic resort that they took the whole resort because we were filming there. And so, they'd given a lot of the actors these huge villas. So I was taken to this, I mean, ludicrously luxurious accommodation with a butler, but I didn't get to meet anyone. And there was one to hang out with most nights until I got funny Patrick and Sarah, Catherine and Sam, who play my kids, and they would come over and basically keep me company because I was so lonely there.
Of course they had a great time, but maybe there’s such a thing as too fancy, isn’t there? You can watch the premiere episode of Season 3 of The White Lotus this Sunday on HBO or with a Max subscription, and now you can actually confirm those fancy pillows are exactly as advertised.
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