and families, while the grandson char- acter is more like - ‘I’m sorry, I actu- ally don’t have a sex drive’.” [Laughs] On storytelling in English, Italian and Sicilian… “Sicilian is a different dialect from Italian. We cast some actors who spoke Italian, but they were sup- posed to be Sicilian. I had an amaz- ing assistant named Chiara who grew up in Florida, but she’s Sicilian and speaks Italian, Sicilian and English, and she became our translator. Sab- rina’s character Valentina – the ho- tel manager – is supposed to be from Rome, so she speaks Italian. Lucia and Mia are locals, so they speak Sicilian. So, there were many conversations among the actors to make sure we got those details right. Being on set was so much fun. The Italian actors were so great. The part that’s really tricky is the editing, because often the episodes come in too long and I have to trim a scene. I’ll ask her, ‘Ok, what are they saying exactly?’ I think it’s easy to see what I like and dislike when something is in English. But making the show in Italian, I feel unburdened; like, ‘Well, I like her ex- pression in this take!’” On the opening titles… “A Palazzo really exists. I went there when I was scouting around on my own and the walls were so insane. ‘Wouldn’t this be cool for the titles?’ In the first season’s titles, we had that tropical wallpaper; here, these walls have hints in them and like, nothing is exactly what you think. It starts with the celestial angels on the ceiling, then it’s the monkey and the man, then a dog peeing on the floor. White Lotus Emmy-winning composer Cris- tobal Tapia de Veer had the idea to start with an operatic classical feel that tells us, ‘Oh this is a different show.’ Then, about 20 seconds in, we hear the old hook, but it’s a ful- ly new version of the score. Season one was very heavy on tropical anx- iety and this time we’re using some specific instruments and accents that feel more in-situ for Sicily. My hope for the titles and score is that it feels like there’s enough connective tis- sue to last the season, but it’s a very new iteration.”
cally adultery. A girl who lived in the Arab district of Palermo, the Kalsa, was taking care of some plants and flowers on the balcony of her house. Suddenly, a dark-skinned merchant passed by and they immediately fell in love with one another. They be- gan their love story together until the young girl discovered that her lover already had a wife and children wait- ing for him back in his home coun- try. One night while he slept, the girl, crazed with jealousy, thought of a way to make him stay with her forever. Without blinking an eye, she cut off his head and decided to use it as a vase to grow basil. I thought, ‘That’s a cool idea right there!’ Adultery, sex- ual politics and giving those themes kind of an operatic feel; a heightened sexual-panic vibe. I started generating ideas of men and women and their very different expectations for mo- nogamy and relationships.”
“Jennifer is my friend and she was part of the reason I wrote sea- son one. People really responded to her performance and I said, ‘If we go to Italy, I have to bring Jennifer.’ Re- ally, I just adore her. She has such a fun energy to have on a shoot, not to mention she’s a great actress. I al- so wanted to see her on that Vespa [Laughs]. I wanted her in a ‘60s dress, scarf on her head, sunglasses— the ultimate gay-icon. And actually, all of this came straight from Jennifer. I asked her, ‘If we go to Italy, what do you want to do?’ and she’s like, ‘I just want to be on one of those Ves- pas while hot Italian guys light my cigarette’.” On men… “In season two, I wanted to ex- plore these themes through the lens of male heterosexuality. I thought it would be interesting to have three generations of men travelling togeth- er and have the older men grappling with the reality that their sex drives have essentially ruined their legacies
On the return of Em- my-winner Jennifer Coolidge…
28 | Beli lotos » The white lotus
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