Season 3 of The White Lotus was honestly a little disappointing (I fear season 2 was the peak), but the cast and composer drama this season? Give her an Emmy, immediately. Between the theme song composer quitting and trash-talking show creator Mike White, Jason Isaacs casually comparing the set to “an open prison camp,” and the enthralling Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood lore, I’m about to set a new screen time record for myself. I have Reddit threads to digest and Instagram sleuthing to do. God forbid a woman has hobbies! It’s been a very chaotic few days of White Lotus revelations and rumors, so let’s recap: Here’s a breakdown of The White Lotus season 3 cast and composer drama.
White Lotus Season 3 Cast Feuds: Jason Isaacs, Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood
The Jason Isaacs White Lotus Drama
You’d really think this 61-year-old seasoned actor went to war, the way he describes the experience of filming the hit TV show. “It was a theatre camp, but to some extent an open prison camp,” he claimed during an interview with The Guardian. Bet his publicist loved that insane sentence. “There are tensions and difficulties,” Jason continued. “I don’t know if they spilled from on screen to off-screen, or if it would have happened anyway. There were alliances that formed and broke, romances that formed and broke, friendships that formed and broke.” Don’t be shy, Lucius Malfoy: Next interview, please reveal who was involved in said romances and ~alliances~. Thanks!
“It’s a long period of time for people to be away from their family with an open bar and all the wildness being in Thailand allows,” he added. Okay, I’m absolutely dying to know what he means by “wildness.” The actor even admitted that he was “involved in some off-screen drama” and got “used to it.” Apparently, his wife (who was there with him), observed, “Some of these people are fucking mad.” I need. The documentary. Now.
Walton Goggins And Aimee Lou Wood White Lotus Drama
Of course, the Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood of it all is the main character of the White Lotus season 3 drama! Fans of the show recently noticed that these two don’t follow each other on Instagram, yet they both follow (most) of their other White Lotus costars. As if that wasn’t suspicious enough, the costars both shared dramatic post-finale Instagram posts with Fleetwood Mac’s breakup anthem, “Silver Springs.” Only the most haunting breakup song in existence. Although they have been posting photos of each other, they’re not tagging each other in said posts, which is also strange. And online detectives found it odd that Walton skipped the cast’s finale watch party. There’s no shortage of suspicious activity going on here!
And, uh, the way Walton talks about Aimee in interviews is… intense, to say the least. “We both became enmeshed in each other in the way that Rick and Chelsea are,” he explained to People about his relationship with Aimee. He also told The Telegraph that she’s “on some levels, a soulmate.” Yeah, I will be staying tuned for more updates on this saga.
Mike White And Composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer White Lotus Drama
Ahead of the season finale, White Lotus‘ Emmy-winning composer, Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, announced that he’s leaving the show. In an interview with The New York Times, he shared the grievances that led him to that decision. “I feel like this was, you know, a rock ’n’ roll band story,” he said. “I was like, OK, this is like a rock band I’ve been in before where the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all.” Oy. Although Cristóbal does love the season 3 theme, he apparently wanted a longer version that includes the iconic melody from the first two seasons. (He posted the OG version on YouTube.)
Show creator Mike White reacted to Cristóbal’s comments during an interview with Howard Stern. He called the composer’s New York Times interview a “PR campaign” and noted that it conveniently came out a few days before the finale. “It was kind of of a bitch move,” Mike said. “I don’t think he respected me. He basically wants people to know that he’s edgy and dark and I’m, I don’t know, like I watch reality TV.” (I mean, how else is one supposed to analyze human behavior and come to important conclusions??)
Although Cristóbal claims they “feuded,” Mike said: “We never really even fought … I don’t think I ever had a fight with him, except for maybe some emails. It was basically me giving him notes.” He suspects the composer just didn’t enjoy getting those notes. Mike explained that things changed after Cristóbal won Emmys and his theme went viral. “He’d have a contemptuous smirk on his face when dealing with me,” the show creator recalled. “Like I was just a chimp or something.” Men are exhausting.
