Welcome back to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. This week, a dispatch from Los Angeles offers insights about The White Lotus directly from LISA herself. If you enjoy what you’re reading, feel free to subscribe to my companion newsletter to get Fan Chant delivered right to your inbox each week!
This week, as we close in on the premiere date for the third season of HBO’s acclaimed satire The White Lotus, my wonderful shining star of a colleague Liz Shannon Miller attended a panel with members of the cast, including Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood, Tayme Thapthimthong, and LISA of BLACKPINK. Liz was kind enough to relay the intel to me. Be sure to subscribe to Liz’s amazing weekly TV and film newsletter, Stream On, and read on for what LISA revealed about the upcoming season of The White Lotus.
Character details: When discussing her character, Mook, LISA remained a bit coy, but teased the romantic plotline in store. When asked if she was playing someone flirtatious or mysterious, she replied, “What do you think?”
“I think [Mook] is a bit shocked,” she continued, speaking to the romantic advances her character experiences from Tayme’s Gaitok. “She’s being best friends with him. Good friends, family friends. She didn’t really think of him that way.”
Thai dialogue: LISA’s co-star, Tayme, was born and raised in England, and spoke to the ways LISA helped him nail the details for playing someone native to Thailand. “To play a local and make the dialogue convincing, I had to work on that quite a bit,” he explained. “LISA actually really helped out with that. When they first gave me the script, they said, ‘Just do it how you would normally speak.’ We sat down and said, okay, let’s make it more convincing. LISA helped rephrase a lot of sentences for me so it would sound more natural.”
The show’s thesis: LISA had a clear perspective about the direction of the show. “I think a lot of it for me is about fate versus free will,” she told the audience. “How much is destined, and how much choice and agency do we have? Some people have the fatal flaw of pride, and is that a destined downfall? Or do we have a choice?”
On LISA being more than “stunt casting:” “Obviously, LISA is the pride of Thailand, but the truth is, I was not aware of BLACKPINK, but I heard that she was open to meeting,” shared series creator Mike White via email the same day. “There was a lot of excitement, especially from the Thai casting people about it. And I was like, ‘We don’t need stunt casting.’ I was actually very resistant just on concept, but then she came in and she did the best job. She was great right out the gate and also is just a lovely person. It was easy for me as a director to communicate with her and she just had a lot of colors in her acting. It turned out to be a great thing.”
We are just days away from the premiere of the third season of The White Lotus — revisit the trailer one more time below, and tune into the new episode this weekend on February 16th.
Song Rec of the Week:
This queen! Absolutely no one else in K-pop does this niche of music, one that absolutely demands a knowledge of vogueing, quite like CHUNG HA. Her new album ALIVIO is a treat, but the focus track is giving Ariana’s “yes, and?” in all the best ways.