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-skinnedmerchant passed by and they immediately fell in love with one another. They begantheir lovestorytogetheruntil the young girl discovered that her lover alreadyhad awife and childrenwaiting for him back in his home country.Onenightwhilehe slept, thegirl, crazedwithjealousy, thoughtofaway 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, sexual politics and giving those themes kindof anoperatic feel; aheightened sexual-panicvibe. Istartedgenerating ideas of men and women and their very different expectations for monogamy and relationships.” On the return of Emmy-winner Jennifer Coolidge… “Jennifer is my friend and she was part of the reason I wrote season one. People really responded to her performance and I said, ‘Ifwe go to Italy, I have to bring Jennifer.’ Really, I just adore her. She has such a fun energy to have on a shoot, not tomention she’s a great actress. I also wanted to see her on that Vespa [Laughs]. Iwantedher ina ‘60sdress, 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 Vespas while hot Italian guys light my cigarette’.” On men… “In season two, I wanted to explore these themes through the lens ofmale heterosexuality. I thought it would be interesting to have three generationsofmentravellingtogether andhave the oldermen grappling with the reality that their sex drives have essentially ruined their legacies andfamilies,whilethegrandsoncharacter is more like - ‘I’m sorry, I actuallydon’t have a sexdrive’.” [Laughs] On storytelling in English, Italian and Sicilian… “Sicilian is a different dialect from Italian. We cast some actors whospoke Italian, but theyweresupposed to be Sicilian. I had an amazingassistantnamedChiarawhogrew up in Florida, but she’s Sicilian and speaks Italian, Sicilian and English, and she became our translator. Sabrina’s character Valentina – the hotelmanager – is supposed tobe from Rome, soshespeaksItalian.Luciaand Mia are locals, so they speakSicilian. 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 dislikewhensomething is inEnglish. Butmaking the showin Italian, I feel unburdened; like, ‘Well, I like her expression in this take!’” On the opening titles… “A Palazzo really exists. I went therewhenIwas scoutingaroundon myownandthewallswereso insane. ‘Wouldn’t this be cool for the titles?’ Inthefirst season’s titles,wehadthat tropical wallpaper; here, these walls havehints in themand like, nothing is exactly what you think. It starts withthecelestialangelsontheceiling, then it’s the monkey and the man, thenadogpeeingonthefloor.White LotusEmmy-winningcomposerCristobal 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 fully new version of the score. Season one was very heavy on tropical anxiety and this time we’re using some specific instrumentsandaccentsthat feel more in-situ for Sicily. My hope for the titles and score is that it feels like there’s enough connective tissue to last the season, but it’s a very new iteration.” 28 | Beli lotos » The white lotus Foto: Profimedia / HBO / Hollywood Archive
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