Natasha Rothwell on White Lotus season 4 ideas, Greg’s Money in final

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for the season 3 final of “The White Lotus”, which now streams at Max.

Belinda is safe!

As the only guest in the White Lotus who knows about the history of murders in the resort chain, things looked for Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) for a long time throughout the season. A fan favorite recurring character from season 1 of ‘The White Lotus’, she knew she recognized Greg (Jon Gries) as soon as she saw him in Thailand. When she saw him think of Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), the rich woman who had promised Belinda that she would support her spa financially – but when she went back to Tanya’s name, she realized that Greg was married to her And That she had died shortly thereafter, which means that Belinda was in major problems.

After he heard from hotel manager Fabian (Christian Friedel) that Greg had asked after her place of residence, Belinda rightly started to fear for her safety, but she eventually triumphed. Although he originally tried to convince her that he was someone else, Greg eventually gave his identity to Belinda and offered her $ 100,000 to keep her mouth shut (although he formulated it more gracefully, claiming that he was innocent in killing his wife). Belinda tended to reject the “blood money” until her son, Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), convinced her to take a meeting with Greg to discuss it further. An enthusiastic business student at the University of Hawaii has successfully pushed Greg to clean up the Hush money to $ 5 million. After a quick stop to tell Pornchai (Dom hetrakul) – a white Lotus massage therapist with whom Belinda had a short appearance – that she could not connect to start a business with him, the new rich mother and son Thailand left with Grijnand on their faces.

Rothwell spoke against Variety About the big victory of Belinda and whether she returns to “The White Lotus” for season 4.

Did you know how Belinda’s arch would end when you signed up to participate in season 3?

When I signed up, no, but after my deal was closed, yes. Initially I thought, “Wherever you want me to go, I’ll be there.” There was no “I will consider it, but let me show the scripts” mentality. I just like to work with Mike White. I love the team. I love all things HBO. So it was a no brainer. When I got the scripts, I bing them. I sat down, read all eight and grabbed the phone and facetimed him. He was in Thailand, exploration, and I just shouted: “Oh my God! It’s so good! This is huge!” And it was really great to see it coming to life and finally for the world to know all my secrets.

Did you have predictions while reading? Did you worry that Belinda would die?

Naturally. If there is something that does HBO – I mean “Game of Thrones”, “White Lotus” – they are not afraid to bring tragedy to their main characters. So I was very worried when I was turning every page. And the tension I felt of people who looked at it, and their worries for Belinda, was validated. Because when I was reading, I felt the same thing.

How did it feel to have a family relationship on the screen this time, where Nicholas Duvernay played your son Zion, instead of just colleagues such as in season 1?

It was important, especially in episode 8, to really see him leaning to take care of his mother. Belinda is someone who takes care of a living for other people, and she is a single mother and a young mother, so to show him for her was really cool to see. Their relationship really sheds a new light on my own relationship with my parents. They are at that stage where they try to explore friendship with each other, and I remember that I did that with my parents at that age. It was quite uncomfortable! You’re so much: “I’m going to drink for my mother? Yes, I’m going to drink for my mother!” There are all these things that you are trying to negotiate, so it was really cool to allow Belinda to show that softer side.

Zion drinks for Belinda and he also pushes back on her decisions. Do you think she secretly hoped that he would challenge her to reject Greg’s money? Or Were she and Zion really on the opposite sides before he convinced her?

They were on the opposite sides. Although their relationship is clearly maternal, it also has that friendship component. But at the end of the day I am the mother. I have to be an example and I have to lead, and I don’t want to be the kind of role model that entertains wealth in an unsavory way. I really think she was trying to do the right thing, and she admitted Zion and said, “Just hear him hear.” Only when she arrived there did she see that Zion would take the reins and ran. Sitting there against Greg, she knows how dangerous he is, but Zion has the youthful idea that they are invincible. He doesn’t really feel the same fear she does. Belinda probably thinks it goes from $ 100,000 to a million, and that would have been more than enough. So if he goes five million, you will see her stitching in her drink. She is like, “Oh, he really is getting wild.”

But at that moment she also sees that Greg is getting a little nervous. When we shot that scene, we did a lot of coverage, so I was really focused on John. He is so good – are his facial movements and reactions. At that time that Zion says 5 million, you can see his worries: “Oh, she knows she can ask for more.” That is the moment that Belinda comes on board. Such as: “Oh, I have the power. And I want to know what it’s like to have the power over a white person. I have had to serve so many. This is a moment when I can step into that force.”

You have spoken about how you proposed to add the moment earlier in the season in which Belinda smiles and recognizes the first other black people she sees in the resort based on your own holiday places with low black populations. Belinda also wears a hood over her hair when she checks her bank account in the middle of the night and sees that Greg sent the five million. Tell me how it felt to experience that victory as your character, and to bring some blackness in the moment as an actor.

It’s the little shit. As often as I talk about with other writers or writers in which I guided: when you write for a character that is black, the changes you make are subtle. They don’t have to be big swings. I was very clear. I had something like that: “When she is ready at night, she will wear her hood. She has no bra on. She will be there, without makeup.” Just the grounding of her reality, because she is a real, accessible person.

And I wanted to show her absolute joy to see this coming in. He just talked to Mike to let that information really land. Not only what it means for today, but for the future. One of the things I spoke to with Nicholas was that I am by no means rich, but I am no longer poor – which I was for a long time. I could not imagine, prior to my success on ‘Uncertain’, in a place where I did not wake up, my day lived and went to bed thinking about money and how I started paying bills. I still think of those things, but in different ways. So I remember the moment when I could pay off my student loans. I had postponed my university loans so often because I could not pay them. I just tried to channel the relief of that burden, of financial despair that was lifted. I wanted to give her everything I felt. It is a wonderful thing to show someone like Belinda, who deserves so to have this moment of financial catharsis.

What do you think of where Belinda left things with pornchai? It is not as cruel as what Tanya affected her at the end of season 1, but there is a bit of a mirror there.

I didn’t want to play that moment with feelings of guilt. If people return this season, she never agrees to do business with Pornchai; She is just considering it. What I think is a subtle but a huge difference with season 1, where you show Tanya: “Yes, let’s do it. Give me the papers. Show me your business plan.” She does not lead him through. Pornchai was certainly more in Belinda and the idea than Belinda was. They both really loved each other and had feelings for each other, sexually and in terms of relationship, but I do not think that Belinda was all in it because it is impractical. Her son does not live there, and there is much that she should sort out. So it didn’t have the same angel, but because Belinda knows what she has experienced, she bears the weight of guilt. This is something that I relate to my personal life. If you make a decision that is best for you, it can be difficult if someone else does not benefit from it or is injured, but it is absolutely okay and necessary to make decisions that are in your own interest. And we see Belinda making a decision in her best interest. For the first time she does not set the needs of other people before her own.

I don’t think she’s going outside and this company starts immediately. For her it is about enjoying and being used to peace and silence of financial solvency. Like I said, I have had debts before. I have had credit cards with which I was playing, just to make ends meet. Pick up metrocards in New York for the Metro floor and are like: “I hope it works because I have to reach my show.” So to be in a place where she doesn’t have to worry about helping Zion Grad School and getting his books, or the $ 500 deposit for new uniforms at the White Lotus [is a big deal]. It is all that daily everyday things. That is why she is: “Can I just be rich for a minute? I just want to sit in this feeling that I don’t owe anything and needs nothing from someone.”

Sam Nivola told us that he predicts that Zion will be back for season 4, which seems as if it should also involve Belinda and Greg. No matter how nice it is to see Belinda win, it doesn’t probably seem uncomplicated to her. Do you think you’ll be back next season?

Oh, it’s not uncomplicated. I am completely honest: I didn’t talk to Mike about coming back. I know nothing. I’m like Jon Snow. But when I was reading, I underlined and circled the line in the script that looked like: “I want to be hard to find. We have to leave here now.” I feel that there is a version in which Belinda takes the money And The police tell because she is walking that fine line. And Greg should leave Thailand and hunt her because he was something like: “I gave her money to keep her mouth shut, and she didn’t.” Like a revenge thing. That was the only line where I thought, “Oh, maybe I’ll come back.” Maybe she hides somewhere in a white lotus.

That would be my fanfic -pack. I think it would be nice to see how her life gets more complicated from this bad – of this decision. I don’t think it’s a bad one decision. I think it is a decision that made her a compromise about her morality, but the juice was worth it.

This interview has been edited and condensed. To see the rest of the variety‘S reporting on the’ The White Lotus’ final, including a summary, cast interviews and a review, here.