Something is fishy about the Ratliff family. Photos: Max
Natasha Rothwell cried a lot during the shoot for the new season of the Emmy-winning series The White Lotus in Thailand.
And mind you, most of the time, it happened when the cameras weren’t rolling.
“When I first got (to Koh Samui), I was super jet-lagged.
I got in at night, so I didn’t see anything.
“And when I woke up in the morning and opened my curtains and looked outside, I just started crying because it was so stunning.
“I had never been to Thailand before, and it was just breath- taking,” Rothwell says of the first of the many times she shed tears – tears of joy, that is – at the beauty of Thailand where she was based for seven months in 2024 to shoot the third season of The White Lotus.
On a scorching Valentine’s Day two weeks ago, Rothwell and her Hollywood co-stars – Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook – arrived in Thailand’s capital for the series premiere.
Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda makes a comeback to 'The White Lotus' world.
Outside, the heat was punishing, and the air quality was reportedly hazardous.
The day before our interviews, the cast walked down the green carpet, wilting under the sun as assistants hovered nearby with mini portable fans, trying to keep them cool while they worked the press line.
But today, we are in a more forgiving space – temperature-wise.
As the cast settles into the cool comfort of Four Seasons Bangkok At Chao Phraya River – where the lobby of the hotel is decked with white lotuses – Rothwell reflects on another kind of return: stepping back into the world of The White Lotus as Belinda Lindsey.
Fans of the series would remember her as the kind spa manager who bonded with fan favourite, Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya in Season One.
As Tanya met her end in Season Two, show creator Mike White needed a familiar face to serve as a link to the third season.
US actress Natasha Rothwell attends the season three premiere of HBO's 'The White Lotus' at ICONSIAM in Bangkok on Feb 14, 2025. Photo: AFP
While shooting the second season, White reached out to Rothwell with the idea of bringing Belinda back for Season Three.
“I was like, ‘All right’. Then he went off to Sicily to finish shooting Season Two. So much time passed, and, you know, Hollywood is Hollywood... I wasn’t sure if it would actually happen.
“But when the call finally came, I thought, ‘Well, I better get my passport ready. I don’t know where we’re going, but I’m excited to do it’,” says Rothwell who picked up an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2022 for this particular role.
In the third season, which premiered on Feb 17 on Max and HBO, Belinda checks in to the fictional luxury resort, White Lotus in Thailand to learn from its world class wellness programme, hoping to bring what she learns back to her own spa.
The other guests who are also checking in for an opulent vacation are the Ratliffs – a wealthy and loud Southern family who has many skeletons in their closet; a May-December couple (Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood) with nothing much in common; and three old friends (Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb) who are hoping to reconnect at the luxury resort.
Playing the role of the patriarch of the Ratliff family, Timothy, is Isaacs who is known to many as the sinister Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.
Isaacs is quick to point out that, unlike Lucius, Timothy is not a villain as much as he is a self-assured, entitled white man.
“He’s arrogant, confident, and privileged, but he gets taken down by life.
“His reputation and ego get stripped away, and in the setting of Thailand, themes of spirituality and identity challenge him.
“It’s fascinating to see what happens when a powerful person loses everything that defines them,” the 61-year-old British actor says of his character.
English actor Jason Isaacs plays the patriarch of the Ratliff family. Photo: AFP
Posey, 56, who plays his wife Victoria agrees, saying: “(The Ratliffs) have money, but they have their own sense of misery.”
Just like the previous seasons, this one has the same DNA – Episode One opens with a dead body, setting the stage for viewers to guess which guest or hotel staff meets their demise.
As the wealthy guests check in, indulging in fine dining and five-star service, it doesn’t take long before we see their lives unravel.
As Isaacs puts it succinctly: “It gets bad. Nobody wants to watch rich people have a lovely holiday.”
Each season of The White Lotus takes the cast to a different location where they shoot for months on end.
Season One was in Maui in Hawaii, the United States while the second season was set in Sicily, Italy.
For the latest season, the cast spent seven months staying in Thailand where they shot in three locations – Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok.
For the cast, filming on location instead of against a green screen was a rare and rewarding experience.
(From left) Thai talents Tayme Thapthimthong, Patravadi 'Lek' Mejudhon and Dom Hetrakul greeting fans at the Bangkok premiere.
Just as New York City was a character in Sex And The City, Thailand plays the same role in The White Lotus.
“Thailand isn’t just a backdrop in this season – it’s a character in itself,” says Rothwell, who headlined the 2024 comedy series How To Die Alone and had a starring role in the 2023 musical Wonka.
Shooting in Thailand also meant that many local actors were included into the main cast, including Dom Hetrakul, Tayme Thapthimthong, Patravadi “Lek” Mejudhon and K-pop group Blackpink’s Lisa.
Credited as Lalisa Manobal on the show, this is the singer’s acting debut and the cast heaps praise for her performance as Mook, a health mentor at the luxury resort.
“She’s a natural-born star. Watching her on screen now, you can see she just has it,” says Schwarzenegger who plays Saxton, the eldest son of the Ratliff family.
Mejudhon, a renowned Thai star and drama teacher, was also impressed with Lisa’s humility.
“Even though she’s a global superstar, she was incredibly humble. When we met, she came over, knelt on the floor with her hands on my lap, and called me khru ka (teacher), asking for advice on how to perform a classical Thai dance (which Lisa showcases in the series).
“That level of respect and humility was unexpected for someone of her fame.
“I believe that’s part of why she has achieved so much – she blends an international outlook with strong Thai cultural values,” Mejudhon, 76, says.
Thai singer Lalisa Manobal, known as Lisa, member of the K-pop group Blackpink, makes her acting debut in 'The White Lotus'. Photo: AFP
Mejudhon herself was coaxed out of retirement to play the role of Sritala, one of the owners of White Lotus Thailand.
“The production team went all the way to my home in Hua Hin to audition me.
“In Thai culture, we have the concept of kreng jai (consideration for others), so I felt I should at least meet them.
“When I met Mike White, I was very impressed. As a woman of my age, I can sense people’s energy, and I could tell right away that he was an interesting, intelligent man. I knew I could learn something from him,” she says.
One of the things she learned, Mejudhon says, is how disciplined Hollywood is compared to Thailand.
“In Thailand, being late is sometimes acceptable. But on The White Lotus, if the call time was 4am and I was even three minutes late, I’d get a call asking where I was!
“We worked from 4am to 6pm, which was structured and reasonable,” she notes.
For the two youngest cast members – Hook, 29, and Nivola, 21 – starring alongside seasoned actors was akin to taking a masterclass in acting.
“When you work with really seasoned actors, you wonder, ‘Are they going to be super method? Are they going to be really intense?’
What skeletons are in the closet of the Ratliff siblings (from left) Lochlan, Piper and Saxton?
“But (Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey) were just so playful, and we laughed a lot, which was the best,” says Hook who plays Piper Ratliff – whose interest in Buddhism is the reason the family is on vacation in Thailand.
Nivola, whose parents are actors Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer, agrees with his on-screen sibling, Hook.
“They also had very different methods of preparation, which I thought was really cool to see.
“It was amazing to watch two people who are both insanely successful and admirable in their craft go about it in such different ways.
“I love that, throughout my career, I get to cherry-pick different aspects of each actor’s method and sort of build my own,” says Sam Nivola, who was last seen acting alongside Nicole Kidman in the whodunit series, The Perfect Couple (2024).
(From left) Sarah Catherine Hook, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola at the Los Angeles premiere. Photo: AP
Nivola and Hook also felt that staying at a luxury hotel such as Four Seasons while filming The White Lotus helped in their character development.
“We were literally living the White Lotus guest experience!
“The entire cast has talked about how surreal it felt – how meta it is,” says Hook who starred in the Prime Video remake of Cruel Intentions (2024).
“The main difference is that in the show, guests stay at the hotel for about a week, while we were there for (seven) months,” Nivola adds.
“Hotels aren’t meant to be home, so it was a strange feeling to be living in one for so long.
“It was both disorienting and incredible at the same time,” he says.
Even before the third season premiered, HBO already greenlit a fourth season of The White Lotus. Not bad for a show which was supposed to be a limited series during the pandemic.
But for now, the third season is already shattering records – its premiere drew 2.4 million viewers in the US alone, a 155% increase from the first episode of Season One.
(From left) Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb channel 'Sex And The City' vibe in 'The White Lotus'.
Season Three also features one extra episode, eight in total, compared to previous seasons which capped at seven.
“It’s bigger (this season) – more locations, more characters, more set pieces,” Schwarzenegger teases when asked the difference between this season and its predecessors.
“It’s also deeper and richer. Mike has grown as an artist, and with the show’s success, he’s free to explore the human condition more intensely,” Isaacs adds.
Meanwhile, Hook has an advice for those who like watching shows on their mobile phones or tablets: Don’t.
“I was a huge fan of The White Lotus before this, but something about this season feels super cinematic.
“I watched the first episode on the big screen, and it felt like a film.
“So, please watch it on the biggest screen possible! Don’t watch it on your phone!”
New episodes of The White Lotus Season Three premiere Mondays on Max. It is also available on HBO (Astro Ch 411/unifi TV Ch 401) the same day at 9pm.
