Written and directed by Mike White (HBO’s Enlightened), the six-episode limited HBO series The White Lotus is set at an exclusive Hawaiian resort and follows a group of new guests, each with their own set of needs and quirks, as they check in to relax in paradise. When things get more dramatic and the vacationers get more demanding, the hotel manager (Murray Bartlett) finds himself caught in a downward spiral of his own. The cast also includes Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Lacy, Sydney Sweeney, Brittany O’Grady, Fred Hechinger and Natasha Rothwell.
During a virtual junket to discuss the new series, Coolidge spoke 1-on-1 to Collider about playing this wealthy and unstable woman who’s on a trip to come to terms with the death of her mother, what made her want to back out of the project before filming started, how much fun she had playing this character, acting with a box of ashes, and why she feels indebted to White for creating this role for her.
Collider: Your character, Tanya McQuoid, is such an interesting and fascinating woman. Do you know how much of this role was written for you? Was everything very detailed and laid out? How did it work, when it came to developing her?
JENNIFER COOLIDGE: That’s a really good question for Mike White because he did tell some people, and I’ve had some people tell me while doing some interviews, that he had me in mind for it. He played my love interest in a movie, like 12 years ago, called Gentlemen Broncos, so we’ve known each other. He’s tried to write some things for me — he tried to sell a show to HBO about another character. So, he has said that he had me in mind, but I don’t know.
At one point, I even wanted to back out of it because I was so nervous about the fact that the start date was during COVID and I had been eating pizza and ice cream for eight months solid. I wasn’t in good shape and mentally I thought we were gonna die every day. I really didn’t think there was gonna be an end to this. I didn’t think there would be any vaccines. I was really going for the end. I thought I’d just eat myself to death and it would be over.
So then, I got this phone call, just when I thought I was about to croak, and a friend goes, “I have a job for you.” If it was a play, I would have been able to handle it, but it was on camera and I just wanted to get out of it, even though it was this brilliant part. I’m glad that Mike picked up that I was trying to get out of it. He texted me one night, when I was in my bedroom in New Orleans at two in the morning, and it just said, “Are you afraid?” It was Mike’s way of telling me that he knew that I was afraid and that I wasn’t going to be able to get out of it.
This character is a little bit unstable and a lot needy. How did you find the different emotional levels for her, in any given moment?
COOLIDGE: Isn’t that funny, when someone writes a part and they go, “I had you in mind, Jennifer. I feel like this is very much you.” And then, it’s someone mentally unstable and very insecure, and you’re like, “Gosh, is this flattering? Is this someone just making fun of you?” It was a great thing to play, whether Mike had good intentions or whatever he thought. It was a really fun part to play, but yeah, I don’t. Yeah, she is all of that. She’s incredibly insecure. With all of her riches, it doesn’t matter. She’s just desperate to be in love, so that it will fix all of her sadness and grief. I think she feels incredibly alone in this world. She didn’t go on vacation with her group of friends. You can tell she’s a real loner. I just love all the variations of what she was, and in the end, I’m so glad that I did it. Sometimes in life, you try to get out of things and you’re just forced to deal with them, and this is one of those moments in my life where I couldn’t get out of this thing. I would have been devastated to watch this show and know that I passed up on this experience, but at the time, it just seemed impossible to do. But what a gift. How many times in your life does someone go, “Hey, I have a cool part for you,” and then it’s great?
She has three important relationships in the series. She’s got this bond that she develops with this woman at the spa, she finds this man that she’s interested in, and she also has a relationship with this box of ashes. How did they compare as scene partners? What was it like to have to do scenes where your scene partner was essentially a box of ashes?
COOLIDGE: There were many things that went wrong with it too. I don’t know if they’re in the show, but there were scenes where I was trying to open the box. I did have my actual mother’s photo in there and it also had ashes in that box. The prop department were experts, but somehow the box would just open. I’d be trying to pull up, and then the box would just explode open, by accident. I don’t know if it was just cause it was COVID and there was such a depressing aspect to COVID, with so many people losing their lives. It was such a sad thing. It all just felt incredibly dark and serious, in those moments. Sometimes your environment just makes it easier to play things, especially when the box is opening by accident. I felt like the box was an actor. They would glue it shut again, and then it would open again. It was like a person trying to get out. But you’re right, it was another relationship.
It’s such an important relationship for her that, even though that person isn’t there, you still get so much just from her emotions about the ashes.
COOLIDGE: Yeah. And I think it helped that I lost my mother when I was 30 and it was something I never really recovered from. It was just way too early. I think Mike maybe knew that about me. I think he remembered that about me, so he put it in the script. It was definitely cathartic, to say the least. That’s all thanks to Mike White. I have Mike White. I owe him everything for this part. I don’t get offered this kind of part very much, or actually ever.
The White Lotus airs on Sunday nights on HBO, and is available to stream at HBO Max.