By Danielle Broadway and Jane Ross
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jennifer Coolidge returns to “The White Lotus” to play Tanya McQuoid for Season 2 of the HBO Max series created by Mike White, and she’s ready for fans to meet a new side of her character.
“This was really fun for me because the entire length of ‘The White Lotus’ 1 was a grief-stricken woman and there are spurts of bright light because she met this amazing woman, Belinda, and Tanya felt like she was truly being saved by someone,” Coolidge told Reuters at a red carpet event in Los Angeles. “In Season 2 it was fun to be in a different realm, the grief is over.”
Season 2 stars Coolidge along with fellow returner Jon Gries and newcomers F. Murray Abraham, Meghann Fahy, Adam DiMarco and others as they navigate a fictional White Lotus resort, this time in Sicily, and get more than they bargained for.
Gries, who plays Tanya’s husband, Greg Hunt, said he thinks the surprise this season will by far supersede the surprise in Season 1, which was set in Hawaii.
“The theme of this one is more about relationships and less about the abuse of money. It’s ultimately about the ways we can abuse each other in very subtle ways, by miscommunicating we can put each other in bad positions.”
F. Murray Abraham, who plays Bert Di Grasso, believes audiences will relate to the characters.
“These are real people, and they have some real problems,” Abraham said. “And they’re really funny too.”
The characters this season must face unique conflicts that audiences haven’t seen in this series yet, he said.
“I think this season it’s “White Lotus” on aphrodisiacs. Last season was a lot about money and power, and this season is much more about sex, sexual politics, sexual jealousy, men and women and monogamy, adultery, and all those sexier topics.”
Season 2 of “The White Lotus” premieres on October 30, 2022 on HBO Max.
(Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Jane Ross; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
