The White Lotus is back. And yes, we’re booked, busy, and blissfully watching the drama unfold poolside. But this week, a small behind-the-scenes detail made a big splash.
In a recent Harper’s Bazaar interview, the brilliant Carrie Coon (who plays Laurie in Season 3) revealed that a storyline involving her character’s non-binary or possibly trans child was cut from the show. Originally, the scene showed Laurie struggling,adorably and awkwardly, to explain her child’s identity to her friends, wrestling with pronouns and language in a very real, very human way.
It would’ve added even more heat to that already spicy scene where Kate (played by Leslie Bibb) casually drops the “I voted for Trump” bomb. “It made that moment way more personally offensive to Laurie,” Coon explained.
So… why the cut?
Turns out the scene was written before Trump’s re-election. And after that political curveball, creator Mike White made the call: the moment was too small for such a big, important topic. As Coon put it, “It wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation.”
To be clear, Mike White isn’t one to shy away from messy, uncomfortable cultural commentary (we have two seasons of chaos to prove it). But with trans rights being so weaponized right now, the team felt it would’ve done the topic a disservice by only scratching the surface.
Do we miss the scene? Yes. Do we get why it was cut? Also yes.
The White Lotus still has us hooked, sun, scandal, and all. We just hope that next time, a story like this gets the depth and spotlight it deserves.
