It’s hard for Natasha Rothwell to pick just one favorite scene from “The White Lotus” Season 3 — but if pressed, she has to go with the big moment in the HBO series’ finale where her character, spa manager Belinda Lindsey, and Belinda’s son, Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), negotiate a hush-money settlement with Jon Gries’ Greg, aka Gary, the shady guy who almost certainly had a hand in killing his wife, Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge).
He offers $100,000. Belinda plays hardball and mother and son walk away $5 million richer. “That was so much fun to do, to play all of those turns, to show her agency and power in that moment,” Rothwell said.
What did you think when you found out that she takes the money?
Rothwell: What’s so interesting about that scene in particular is Mike (White, the series creator) had written it differently. Zion had taken the lead, kind of keeping her pure. And I remember saying to Mike, “I really want her to have agency. I don’t want just the men to handle the problem. I want to see how she takes control and maybe even makes it worse by saying ‘Yes.’” And he took that pitch. In the moment, she sees that Greg is sweating, and she’s like, “Oh, we got him.” And so that turn (to back her son’s demand for $5 million), it was surprising but justified. It just raises the stakes. It makes her dirty in a way that I think is just really human and fun.
People have compared Belinda’s decision to take the money to what Tanya did to Belinda in the first season because she leaves her new lover (Pornchai, played by Dom Hetrakul) in the dust after she gets rich. What do you make of that?
I ride hard for Belinda. I understand the desire for comparison — how could you not? Tanya made very specific promises to Belinda and betrayed her. But Season 1 Belinda was culpable in that she outsourced her joy to someone else, which is a dangerous thing to do. I don’t think that she is a villain for (taking the money). She chose herself. I wish people weren’t just like, “Look at her repeating what happened in Season 1.” That’s such a thin POV to me. I’m like, “In this moment, the people-pleaser chose herself. Holy sh-t.” We should be like, “Yes!” And yeah, she had a one-night stand with a guy. She doesn’t owe him the world, and she certainly doesn’t need another dependent. She’s taking care of her son, and now she’s taking care of herself. So I understand that that can be the response, but I vehemently disagree that she did anything wrong.
You’re best known as a comedian. Do you want to do more drama series?
Yeah. I was trained in drama — I’m classically trained. Comedy opened the door and I love it, but Mike really allowed me to lean into that part of myself that I definitely wasn’t given opportunities to do. And the show has been such a gift in that it’s allowing the industry at large to recognize all aspects of my talent and not just put me in a box. And, you know, so often the industry can be very binary in how it looks at actors and puts them in boxes. So it’s nice to be able to be in a place where the roles that are coming in now and the scripts that I’m reading are diverse, not just in what’s on the page but the tone and the genre as well.
Have you had any conversations with Mike White about Belinda returning for Season 4?
No conversations with him about that. I would go to Target for the man, you know what I mean? I would do anything he wants me to do. And he knows that. Of course I would love to come back, but I also am a writer, and I know that if the story doesn’t need it, it doesn’t need it. So we’ll see what happens. I’m just excited for the journey that Belinda has ahead of her off screen. She has this financial windfall. She can breathe financially for the first time in her life. And it’s blood money, so I definitely don’t think that it’s going to be easy. But how Mike decides to tell that story? If he decides to tell that story, I’m there.
This story first ran in the Down to the Wire: Drama issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Read more from the Down to the Wire: Drama issue here.
