Jennifer Coolidge shuts down ‘The White Lotus’ return: “They don’t need me”
Jennifer Coolidge has shut down rumours that she could return to The White Lotus in future seasons.
The actress played Tanya McQuoid in the first season of the HBO show and then became one of only two actors to return for the second season in 2022. Tanya is wealthy and emotionally insecure in the show and marries Jon Gries’ Greg Hunt, but she is devastated to learn of his betrayal as season two plays out, and she ultimately drowns in darkly comic fashion at the conclusion of the season.
The third season of the show is currently airing each Sunday, with Greg one of the few characters from previous instalments who has returned. Given Tanya’s demise, it would be hard to see how Coolidge could return, but it has been suggested that she could do so by playing a twin sister to Tanya.
This idea was posed to Coolidge during an interview with Forbes, prompting the actress to reply: “I know! Look, it’s not like I haven’t wished or whatever, but it isn’t happening. It doesn’t matter – they don’t need me. Mike White can tell a story better than anybody.”
Coolidge, who won two Emmys for her performance in the show, added that despite having to look on from afar, she is enjoying the new season. “In the first episode, I felt like – Oh, this is going to be really good! I just felt like everything he [White] set up – it’s really eerie –you’re not quite sure what people are up to yet. My guess? Something’s going to go horribly wrong. I think it’s really going to go wrong. Mike White, he wants us to have it all, I think. I can’t wait.”
She has also confided that she hopes Greg – who is now going by the name Gary in season three – meets a sorry end in the upcoming episodes. “I hope he gets it! I hope they do something terrible to him,” she said.
She then went on to tell E! News: “I hate Greg!” before adding: “Greg doesn’t deserve anything good. I hope he gets what he deserves, which is something really brutal.”
It’s not the first time Coolidge has voiced her desire for revenge, after saying in 2023 that she hopes Tanya’s husband dies in a “meat-grinding machine” in The White Lotus season three.
Speaking to Variety, Coolidge explained at the time that she hopes there’s some “comeuppance” for Greg in the next season. “My hope for Jon is that he’s not finished with Greg,” Coolidge said. “I hope there’s some comeuppance for evil Greg. I think he should, I don’t know, end up in a meat-grinding machine.”
Following Tanya’s death on the show, creator Mike White said that there is the possibility of a prequel series focusing on the character.
Season three of The White Lotus premiered February 16, with NME’s four-star review describing it as “TV’s most essential destination”, remarking that “this transgressive soap opera remains unique and completely jaw-dropping”.
In January HBO confirmed that The White Lotus has been renewed for a fourth season. Details surrounding season four have yet to be announced but it will welcome fans of the hit series “to a new destination”.
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Max Pilley
NME
