White Lotus: “I did not expect it to be that explicit”

Warning: Don’t read until you’ve watched The White Lotus S1E6.

The final (NSFW) episode of The White Lotus has now screened in Australia, including with an eye-popping climax in a hotel suite.

Resort manager Armand (Murray Bartlett) left a personal review rating, of sorts, in the suitcase of guest Shane (Jake Lacy) by way of an excrement deposit. Eww.

With memories of drag queen Divine in Pink Flamingos, is this a TV first?

The sequence also led to the unexpected death of Armand, whose coffin was loaded onto the plane at the season end.

“It was a shock to me when Armand died. I didn’t expect it,” Murray Bartlett said. “Yeah, I mean, there were moments along the way where I thought it was a possibility. But it was definitely shocking in a great way. I feel like it’s sort of fitting in some ways. So yeah, I was equally shocked and kind of satisfied.”

Bartlett also spoke about that shocking suitcase scene to Entertainment Weekly:

EW: Why did he go to the Pineapple Suite? What was he planning to do when he walked in there? Was there any sort of specific plan he had in mind before seeing the suitcase?

MB: There was some sort of context before, that was referred to in previous things, where Armond fell off of his sobriety five years previously, and I think he did something similar. It was like a nightmare. And so, whether it was this act or something equally as shocking and intense, I think he knows he’s going to do something. I don’t even know that any of it is conscious at that point. He’s very high, and he’s basically sort of let go into his spiral. So I don’t know.

I think it is an intention that he goes there to do that. I’m not sure whether he truly believes that he’s going to fully follow through with it, but I think he’s that kind of disgusted with that guy and with this whole situation. And he’s ready to follow through.

EW: Now, I spoke to Mike last week and he told me when you all were filming that defecation scene he told you not to worry about that wide shot from the side where we see you squatting over the suitcase because it would not actually be used, and then he got a little worried last week because he didn’t know if you had actually seen it yet and realized it was in there. Had you seen it and, if so, what was your reaction?

MB: [Laughs] Yeah, I saw him not so long ago, and he had the same look of worry on his face when we talked about it. I was shocked! I did not expect it to be that explicit, because it wasn’t written that way. And then we shot all this coverage with closeups and cutting from this to that. So my initial response when I watched it was horror [laughs], and a moment afterwards I was like, “Well, of course, it has to be that.” It’s so brilliant because it’s so unexpected and so shocking in a way that it should be in that scene. It’s weirdly satisfying, but disgusting and horrifying.

It’s such a Mike White moment. Not a s—ing in a suitcase moment, although that’s debatable, but that moment of like, you don’t know what to feel. It’s incredibly uncomfortable, and he will take it to that place, that is really confronting. And I just love that about him. And I love that about that moment. I think it really drives the point home in a way that adding into like different shots wouldn’t do it. You can’t escape it. You’re locked in a two-shot, and you can’t pretend it’s not happening. It’s very clearly happening.

EW: And it was very clearly happening to you. So what was it like filming that day? What were you like before you went to the set that day knowing that was coming up? And then what was it like actually going through with it?

MB: Well, actually, something happened to the schedule, and that day was brought forward. So we didn’t think we were shooting that day. And we were in makeup and getting ready, and then suddenly we’re into that stuff. So maybe that’s the best way to do it. [Laughs] I didn’t have any time to really worry about it. I mean, I’d obviously thought about it before, but we were just kind of thrown into it.

By that stage, it was so much fun making this show, and we all felt so lucky every day, because we were shooting the show in Hawaii with this amazing group of people, with awesome scripts, in the middle of a pandemic. So it was kind of dreamy. And Mike sets this tone of fun and play on set. We were well into shooting by then, so I felt really comfortable and totally trusted Mike, and everyone was super respectful. However, I’m s—ting in a suitcase. [Laughs] So it’s just going to be weird. You just can’t get away from it. But it was the best sort of setup that it could have been in terms of being respectful and as closed a set as it could be and all that kind of stuff. But it as just weird. I never would have expected that I would be doing that, but I think it really works in the story.

There are some suggestions it could have been CGI, but still, it wasn’t even implied….

Season Two will feature new characters and a new storyline, which also begs the question: with a dead body in his hotel suite, how come Shane is able to board a plane and head home?

Or do we just not wrap things up…?