Natasha Rothwell starred in Season One of HBO's "The White Lotus" and is reprising her role as spa manager Belinda for the upcoming third season of the show. But she had to watch Season Two just like the rest of us, she says.
"I was probably the most rabid fan of Season Two," Rothwell said on a segment that aired on TODAY on Feb. 12.
Rothwell described watching the jaw-dropping finale of Season Two of the show, in which Jennifer Coolidge's character, Tanya, meets her stunning demise after falling off of a yacht off the shores of Sicily, Italy.
"(I) remember the moment Jennifer died," Rothwell said, referring to Coolidge's character. "I screamed and, like, threw my phone across the room, grabbed my phone, texted Jennifer. I’m like, 'Holy ... what?'"
And of course, Coolidge replied in the most Jennifer Coolidge way possible, Rothwell said, while giving her best impression of the star.
"And then, yeah, she was just like, 'I couldn’t tell you,'" Rothwell said through laughter.
While Rothwell's casting announcement for the show's third season was confirmed by TODAY.com back in April 2023, she gave an inside look into how the show's creator, Mike White, asked her to return for Season Three while eating dinner together.
"So during dinner, he’s like, 'I think I might want to bring Belinda back,'" she recalled. "And I was just like, 'I will follow you literally anywhere.'”
"I didn’t read a single script," she added. "I was like, 'Let’s go.'"
Rothwell appeared alongside some of her Season Three cast members like Patrick Schwarzenegger, Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood, Lalisa Manobal and more, though the group were tight-lipped about the upcoming season.
"Switch the cameras off, I’ll tell you everything," Isaacs said with a smile after he was asked if he could reveal what happened while they spent six months filming at various locations throughout Thailand.
But Bibb and Rothwell did give viewers a taste of what to expect in the first episode, which premieres on Feb. 16.
"Even the way it starts is not like the way a usual 'White Lotus' starts," Bibb explained.
"Yes, here’s a death, but it is something ... it ain't just a body bag," she continued.
Rothwell added, "Get ready."
Schwarzenegger said he's already bracing for people's reactions to some of the show's racier moments.
"I am a mix of things. I’m excited. I’m very excited. And then there’s a couple episodes or scenes where I think I’ll go to the bathroom," he said while laughing. "A few-minute break or something."
This season of the show was set in Thailand, following seasons in Italy and Hawaii, but the drama, deception and murder mystery elements remain the same, the cast said.
The cast and crew spent months at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, and Wood and Goggins shared their room service habits.
"I got addicted to coconuts ... the fresh coconuts," Wood said. "And I used to just coconut, coconut, coconut, coconut, and then signed for the bill at the end and it was, like, thousands of coconuts and they weren’t cheap."
"I did that with Thai-spiced cashews. That was my thing," Goggins replied, before conceding that room service was where much of his paycheck went.
Ready to check in for Season Three yourself? The first episode premieres on HBO on Feb. 16 at 9 p.m. ET.
