‘The White Lotus’ Season 4 Officially Makes One Star Go Completely Off-Script (Exclusive)
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HBO has had a hugely successful 2026 so far with shows like The Pitt And DTF St. Louis is doing well at the Emmys. HBO has also invested heavily in the fantasy genre game of Thrones Spin-offs like A knight of the Seven Kingdoms And House of the Dragonboth of which will return with new seasons in the next two years. The platform has become a staple of prestige television over the last 25 years, which is what it is perhaps best known for. When it comes to shows with high production values, the first thing that comes to mind is: The White Lotuswhich is written and directed exclusively by Mike White.
Mike White is hard at work filming the fourth season of The White Lotus This is the first film in the series’ history to be set in France. The cast includes: Chloe Bennett, Sandra Bernard, Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Max Greenfield, Ben Kingsley, Alexander Ludwig, Chris Messinaand even Heather Graham. Colliders Perry Nemiroff had the opportunity to chat with him The White Lotus Newcomer Heather Graham at Fantastic Fest to promote her new film, What happened to Doris?and she asked if there was anything while filming Season 4 that allowed her to flex her acting muscles. Graham told Collider:
“Well, Mike (White) said one day, ‘We’ll just make some stuff up.’ And he had me improvise a monologue for about ten minutes in this one scene, and I said, “Thanks, Mike.” I don’t know if it will make the final cut, but it was really fun.”
Collider Exclusive · 8 questions · 2 minutes Which Coen brothers film Would you be successful at it? Lebowski · O Brother · Fargo · No Country
Nobody writes people like the Coen brothers. The decent ones. The speakers. Those who stopped trying years ago. And those who can already see how bad it’s going to get. Four films, four completely different ways of dealing with problems. Eight questions decide which question you would actually leave.
🎳Lebowski(1998)
🎸Oh brother(2000)
❄️Fargo(1996)
🪙No country(2007)
01
A bag of money lands in your lap. What happens next? Every Coen film begins roughly here. Things never go smoothly.
02
Someone is behaving completely unreasonably towards you. How are you? Most people don’t understand each other when it comes to Coen dialogues.
03
How do you actually relate to work? Everyone in these films either works way too hard or not at all.
04
Long drive, bad weather, no one else on the way. How are you doing? There is always a drive in these films. It’s never a good ride.
05
You are offered a shortcut that is not entirely legal. This is the moment the Coens find out who you really are.
06
The plan has completely failed. What is your move? In a Coen film the plan always fails. That’s the genre.
07
Which of these sounds most like something you would say? Nobody writes a line as well as the Coens. Which one is yours?
08
How does your film end? Eight questions, that is the question that decides your film.
The verdict is clear Your Coen film is…
Four films, four completely different ways of dealing with money, anger and other people. This is what you would survive, why it suits you and what it would cost you to be there.
The Big Lebowski · 1998
The Big Lebowski
You’ve quietly arranged your life so that very little bothers you, and a surprising number of people find that annoying. You would be completely at home here.
The guy is the only person in the film who has no ambition and the only one who comes out the other side unscathed. This is no coincidence.
You don’t chase things. You let situations come to you and deal with them at your own pace, which is a real skill, as lazy as it may seem.
This is a complete crime film about a man who, above all, wants his carpet back, and that’s exactly the kind of energy you would bring with you.
Everything goes wrong. You stay. The film ends.
O brother, where are you? · 2000
Oh brother
You talk your way through life and it works out way more often than it should. Give you a bad situation and an audience, and you’ll instantly find a way out of both.
Everett never has a plan that survives contact with reality. He has something better, namely the ability to keep talking until someone new comes along.
You’re the optimist in the group, making a ridiculous idea sound sensible at two in the morning.
This is the warmest film the Coens have made. It’s a chase, a comedy, and a musical all at once, and no one in the film is beyond salvation.
You would become famous completely by accident and act as if you had planned it all along.
Fargo · 1996
Fargo
You would survive Fargo because you’re the only one who can: patient, decent, and completely unfazed by anyone trying to be clever.
Marge Gunderson solves the entire case by being polite, thorough, and unhurried while everyone around her panics. That’s the entire argument of the film.
You do the boring parts of the job, which is exactly why you would notice everyone else walking right past it.
Fargo is about ordinary greed causing enormous harm, and one person who simply refuses to let it corrupt him.
At the end you went home, had dinner and slept wonderfully.
No country for old men · 2007
No country
You don’t expect the world to be fair, and you’ve long since stopped wondering about it. This quality of clear vision is exactly what this film demands.
“No Country” shows the Coens at their coldest: a film in which being smart, quick and careful may not be enough.
You plan for the worst, keep your own counsel, and part of you is already working on a way out.
Llewelyn Moss is competent, prepared and resourceful, and the film honestly examines whether any of that is ever enough.
You would see it coming. Whether that helps is the only question the film doesn’t want to answer.
‘The White Lotus’ star Heather Graham reveals season four’s standouts
The White Lotus is an anthology series, and while each season of the series takes place in the same world and typically features one, perhaps two, characters from a previous season, it features a mostly new cast bringing a new story to life in a new location. There’s a world where it might be difficult for fans to get to know new characters every season, but Mike White does an excellent job of not only writing compelling characters across the board, but also finding the perfect actors to bring them to life on screen.
Nemiroff also asked Heather Graham if she had seen anything so far during filming The White Lotus Season four particularly impressed her with all of her co-stars, and while she admits she hasn’t had a chance to see their performances in the final product, one star did come to mind: “Well, I haven’t really seen all of the performances, but I really adored Chris Messina through working on it. He is a lovely person and He has a really interesting character that he plays. He’s a sweetheart and he plays a really interesting character.”
Check out the first three seasons of The White Lotus on HBO Max and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage on Season 4 as well as Graham’s new film What happened to Doris?.
