I thought one of the more brilliant parts of the season was the side conversations where you sort of gossip about your friends. You love them, but it’s how people interact. But just to go back to the triangulation, I also think it’s not just about New York, LA, or Austin, it’s about how people change, and you think your friend is one person, but maybe they’ve become someone else. And people don’t always want to admit that.
Well, again, it goes back to being vulnerable and who we were and who we become. I had dinner with two women last night, and she was saying, “I am not who I was when I married. I’m just not that person anymore.” And she’s like the conversations on “White Lotus” and her being brave enough to say, “This is what I deserve, this is what I want.” And everyone, I mean, I know everybody lit up. They’re like, “Oh my God, they’re such gossipers.” But I think what’s really important is for me with Mike, and it became very important for Kate, and I feel like for her, people have said like, oh, your facial expressions and this, and there’s these moments that I look at you and you’re listening and there’s so much and you’re not saying anything, but I can tell what’s happening. For Kate, what she’s saying is never what she’s meaning. If you really look at her, you see how scared she is. She does not want to leave that f**king hotel. Her curiosity is not at its height. I mean, I made this weird choice every time I eat. If you look at my breakfast plate, I only have fruit that is not washed. So, you can never have a thing that could have water on it. I feel like her doctor was like, “You have to watch out for Hepatitis A, and if anything has that.” So, at lunch, I think she has French fries and a glass of rosé. And then at dinner, I always have white rice and boiled chicken. It’s always on my plate. Now, when she goes home, she’s going to talk about her trip. She f**king ate every curry and everything. That club scene’s going to have a different thing. It’s going to be like, “Oh, we went to a club and we did this, and we did that.”
At the end of the season, their friendship sort of came back together. Do you think they’re really still going to be friends 10 years from now?
In that final dinner scene, it ended with Carrie’s monologue, and I improvised every time because it was like something was very electric that night. I just feel like we were very tied. Everybody was coming to life. Nobody was doing a deep emotional prep. We were just dialed in with each other. And Carrie, I mean, as soon as she said those words, I think my first take, I grabbed her and was like, “I love you.” And it started this chain reaction of “I love you” to each other. And I’m glad they kept those because I think it grounds that scene in a really deep way. Instead of these three women who are always talking and not sure if they’re receiving what the others are saying, I feel like those I love you are like, “I see you and I feel you.” I hope they make it. I don’t know for Jaclyn and Laurie if they would feel it, but I think for Kate, I think she hopes they make it. I think her reflection, Kate’s reflection through their eyes of her is very important. And I think it reminds her of the fearless girl she used to be, and reminds her when she goes back to Austin to stand in her power a little bit more. And I think Kate is married to a guy who has a lot of money, and she is looking for her worth. I think she’s a very good mother. You can fault her on a lot of things. But I think, again, she’s a good friend in the fact that regardless of her, she doesn’t give a shit that you’re a Democrat. She doesn’t give a shit that way. If you’re in a club, she’s not going to leave you. So, that Russian’s going to f**king ask you to Venmo him $6,000? That’s not going to happen. “Give me your phone. I’ve locked you out of your phone.”
The moment with Parker’s character, Victoria, when she pretends she doesn’t know her. That scene isn’t really about Kate…
I think that is very much about Kate. I mean, to me, that scene was heartbreaking because I think that’s when she doesn’t feel seen. I think that’s exactly was like she comes back and she’s like, “I’m memorable, right? I’m memorable.”
Oh, right.
And Jaclyn says, “I don’t think she remembers you,” and the way, and it’s like those were things that were just happening in the beginning. And I was like, because you can read it and then you feel it and the thing, and then I’m looking again, how I feel like I’m being seen by these two women, and they don’t think she knows that. They don’t think she’s cool. She knows. So she’s constantly trying to validate herself. She’s constantly trying to be like, it’s like that Sally, is it Sally Field? “You like me, you really like me.” That was something, I think I watched that acceptance speech a bunch. I just felt like Kate’s always like, “Am I enough? Am I enough?” And there was a desperation to her. So, when she sees Parker, I remember feeling like “We’re in a pretty chic hotel, and I know you think I live in Austin, but I know somebody here, so how about that?” And then Parker doesn’t see me, and to me…
But she does. For those of us watching, it’s clear that she does know who she is. She just doesn’t want to admit…
But she doesn’t want to claim me.
Yes…
It’s so embarrassing. I mean, for Kate, I feel like you put yourself out there, and I’ve had it happen to me. I’ve been at a table and looked, seen somebody whom I had had an intimate dinner with, and they’re a very famous person. And then I saw them downstairs and I was waving, and they looked at me [strangely] and I was like, “Oh,” and the feeling, I was like, “Oh, the shame.” And it’s so funny because it’s more reflective of that person and not that, but how we feel shame. And I think that’s it with Kate. And I think that’s what Mike meant. It’s slight, she seems slight, but it’s really in those moments, you go, “Well, I’m never going to be vulnerable again.” Right? I mean, I kind of wish, wish there had been another scene. I mean, I bow at Parker’s altar, I love Parker, but I was like, I would’ve loved to have seen Kate and Victoria poolside have a f**king conversation.
Well, listen, you answered my final question about that by bringing up that there was no other scene between your two characters. But as we know with Natasha’s storyline, once you survive a “White Lotus” vacation, you never know when you’re coming back.
You never know, right? You never know. Claire Popovich goes to the f**king White Lotus, and she brings Victoria.
Or they run into each other at another “White Lotus” resort.
I know.
Well, first of all, I can imagine Victoria being able to afford to go there.
I was about to say she won’t be able to afford it anymore. Not if she’s still with that current husband, but that husband, that husband, that rotten husband, that rotten husband.
Oh, by the way, five minutes before I jumped on to chat with you, I interviewed Jason, and he wanted to say hello.
He’s so sweet.
Congratulations on this, and I hope you’re having a blast on “Palm Royale” season two.
I am. That’s really fun. I just want to say this whole “White Lotus” thing it’s been the time of my life. It’s just been fabulous. It’s really incredible to get to do really good work, to work with really great actors, and there’s a part of it that I underestimated, which was the audience and how much they love this show and how much they absorb all the nuance of the show. And I think that’s so cool. I just love people stopping me on the street being like, “O.K., here’s what I think’s going to happen.” I found it incredibly endearing. Just people with their theories about what’s going to happen, who’s going to die? What’s this, what’s that? I mean, there are so many scenes that got cut because of time. And in a way, I wish they had done hour-and-a-half episodes. I think people would’ve eaten it up.
You said people come up and talk to you about the show. Do they come up and say, I’m a Laurie, or I’m a Kate or…?
More people say to me they’re more Kate. I found that by the end of the show, they were like, “O.K., I know you. I don’t know who you voted for, but oh, you’re a good person.” Or, “Oh, I know what it’s like to put on my pajamas.” I got more people stopping me and being like, “Girl, I know what that’s like. I put on my pajamas all the time.” Men, women, everything. And then also, I have guys who come up and they relate to the women, which is interesting. All different types of guys are talking about it. So I found that really interesting. I just thought Mike is such a great writer that he was able to take these three women, and so many people could relate to.
Leslie, I have had such a blast talking to you, so thank you for taking the time. Enjoy working on “Palm Royale.” I can’t wait to see the next season.
I think you’re going to like it. Unlike “The White Lotus,” where you had all eight. We don’t get our scripts like that on “Palm Royale.” And we had to shoot very out of order just because of actors’ schedules. But I saw a little bit. [Showrunner and creator] Abe [Sylvia] showed me some of it, and it looks so cool. And our costume designer, Alix Friedberg, leveled it up. And I think we found the lane with the voice of the show last season. I feel like we started here, and then we ended up with somebody falling in love with a whale. [Laughs.] So, you were like, “Wait, what show is this?” And then this season, I feel like we know our lane. We’re sticking to it. It’s popcorn, it’s campy, it’s fun. It’s friendship, it’s big, it’s dance numbers. And Patti f**king LuPone is in it.
Oh, I completely forgot she joined the cast.
I have a week working with Patti LuPone. That’s all I need. She’s so game. She’s so good. She’s so fun. She’s so talented. And yeah, it’s really good. It’s like ice cream, it’s cotton candy. And I think coming out in November, it’ll be a nice break from politics and the world. It’ll be a nice bit of consumption.
“The White Lotus” is available on Max.
