One of the stars of Season 3 of The White Lotus says the show’s creators cut a storyline involving a non-binary or trans character following President Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election.
Newsweek has reached out to HBO outside of regular working hours via email for comment.
Why It Matters
The White Lotus is a dark-comedy anthology series created by Mike White. Anchored in a murder-mystery plot, the show explores themes of wealth and privilege through a cast of characters that range from morally blind to morally bankrupt.
Since the beginning of his second term in office, several of Trump’s executive orders have targeted transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Transgender rights have become a focal point of ongoing culture wars in the U.S.
What To Know
One of the most talked about plotlines in this season of The White Lotus involves the toxic dynamic between three longtime friends, Laurie (Carrie Coon), Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Kate (Leslie Bibb.)
Coon recently told Harper’s Bazaar that their storyline had at one point included a scene containing a conservation about a nonbinary or transgender character, which was ultimately cut.
The character in question was the child of Laurie. Coon told the outlet: “You originally found out that her daughter was actually non-binary, maybe trans, and going by they/them.”
She continued that you would see her character Laurie finding it difficult to discuss her gender identity with her friends, and “struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language,” a plot point which she described as “interesting.”
In the third episode of season three, there is a scene between the three friends, where it was revealed that the character of Kate is likely a Trump supporter, or at least likely voted for him in the 2016 Presidential Election. Asked by Laurie, “You didn’t vote for Trump though, did you?” Kate responds, “Are we really gonna talk about Trump tonight?”, before swiftly changing the subject.
Coon said that the storyline involving the gender-questioning child made the question “of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world.”
This season of The White Lotus was written prior to the election, and Coon told Harpers Bazaar that ultimately the show’s creator Mike White had felt the scene was too “small” to handle a topic “so big.”
What People Are Saying
Carrie Coon, speaking to Harper’s Bazaar: “The season was written before the election. And considering the way the Trump administration has weaponized the cultural war against transgender people even more since then, when the time came to cut the episode down, Mike felt the scene was so small and the topic so big that it wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation.
What’s Next
The White Lotus airs on Sunday nights on HBO at 9 p.m. There is only one episode remaining in this season, meaning the finale will air on HBO Sunday, April 6.
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