How Natasha Rothwell Helped Shape Her White Lotus Character: “She’s a Real Black Girl”

At first, Natasha Rothwell was intimidated to check back into Mike White’s deluxe resort anthology series, The White Lotus, for season three.

“I was really nervous,” she tells me, before listing some of the talented actors White assembled for the Thailand-set third season. “You have Parker Posey, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs. You have Aimee Lou [Wood]—just incredible actors,” she says. During a welcome dinner for the cast the first week of shooting, Rothwell kept to herself, watching the new cast mix and mingle from a distance. “My social anxiety necessitates that I kind of hug a wall and watch,” she says

It turns out that the new crop of hotel guests were the ones with butterflies in their stomach. “Carrie [Coon], of all people, came up to me,” she says. “I was like, ‘I’m so nervous to meet you and everyone else.’ She’s like, ‘We’re over there right now talking about how we’re all nervous to meet you.’ Then my world kind of shifted. I was like, ‘Oh, okay. I’ve done this before, and they haven’t.’”

On season one of White Lotus, Rothwell was introduced as Belinda Lindsey, an employee at the White Lotus Maui who dreams of opening a health and wellness center of her own. Jennfier Coolidge’s hapless but arguably well-intentioned millionairess Tanya McQuoid takes a shine to Belinda and dangles the possibility of making her fantasies come true. But by the end of season one, Belinda’s dreams are dashed when Tanya abandons her after falling head over heels for Greg (Jon Gries), a supposedly terminally ill hotel guest. To everyone’s surprise, Gries’s conman Greg is back for yet another stay at the White Lotus in season three. In episode two, it looks like Belinda clocks Greg’s familiar presence, sans Tanya, across the outdoor hotel dining area.

“There’s not much I can say about that,” Rothwell says cryptically.

What Rothwell can say is that filming this season of The White Lotus felt like night and day compared to season one, which was shot during the peak of Covid in 2020 before vaccinations were available. “It felt like Rumspringa,” she says of the third season. “Season one, it was literally masks on, six feet apart, testing multiple times a day. That production really did set the tone for the COVID protocols that would then be replicated for other productions.” Season three was a whole new world, with group dinners and going on mini-adventures with fellow cast members. “It was me and Parker Posey going to a little cafe and walking down to Old Town,” she says.

Below, Rothwell chats with VF about everything from being Black abroad to whether there’s romance in Belinda’s future.

Vanity Fair: What was it like to step back into Belinda’s shoes after a full season away?

Natasha Rothwell: I feel like Carrie Coon said it best: It’s like putting on a wet bathing suit. I know this fits and it feels a little weird, but once I get in the water it’s going to feel like old times. That’s exactly it. I am a little neuro-spicy, so I kind of psyched myself out leading up to it and binged season one all over again and binged season two just to make sure I was in the White Lotus mindset. I showed up and I’m like, “Oh, I know what I’m doing. I know what this is.” So, it felt like coming home really. It really did.

How did it feel returning to the scene where Tanya tells Belinda she won’t fund her wellness center?

It was pretty emotional. I so acutely remember shooting that day. It was very tear-filled— trying to white-knuckle propriety. She didn’t want to let her human-ness show. She didn’t want to let Tanya know that she had affected her so deeply.

I was proud of myself. It was really cool to have that moment as an actor because it can be kind of cringe to watch yourself. It’s not something that I love to do. But in that moment, it was a really tricky needle to thread.

Did you know what was going to happen to Jennifer Coolidge’s character in season two?

No! I was watching in real time with every other person. When I saw her fall, I paused, and picked up the phone and texted her. I was like, “Holy shit!” It also felt particularly cruel on Mike’s part because, famously, Jennifer gets very seasick. Season one, there was a bucket on the boat that they had put her name on and bedazzled. She was on the boat so much in season two, and then to die from being on the boat—I was like, “Oh my God, she was probably ready to die after all of that seasickness.”

How did you map out Belinda’s journey from the end of the first season of White Lotus to the moment we first see her in season three?

Pretty specifically. It was less, ‘What does her Outlook calendar look like?’ I really wanted to clock the emotional evolution that has taken place between season one and season three. In season three, we meet her at a point in her grief—because she’s grieving this lost opportunity—where she’s no longer in denial. She’s not bargaining and she’s not angry, she’s in acceptance. I wanted to mark that cycle of grief for her over the last few years, and how she would be showing up for this really cool opportunity for work.

In episode one, there was a lovely little moment where Belinda sees a Black couple staying at the White Lotus and the three exchange knowing glances. Can you tell me about how you crafted that moment?

I pitched that to Mike, actually. I can’t stress how incredible Mike is in terms of collaboration. He was the same way in season one. We would sit down and we would talk through literally every page of Belinda’s scene and make sure that it had ten toes down in the culture. In the season, you see me wearing a bonnet at night when I’m going to bed. There were all of these things where I was like, she’s a real Black girl.

When I talked to him about being Black while traveling, I mentioned this story. I was traveling in Ireland and I was at some castle at the top of some hill and it was misty and there wasn’t a Black face in sight. And this Black family emerges from the mist and I lock eyes with them and we started walking towards each other and hugged.

When you see Black people traveling, it lets you know you’re allowed to be in those spaces. In that moment when Belinda sees this very affluent Black couple walking in—never having gotten a check from the White Lotus as an employee—it allows her to fantasize and project herself onto that possibility, which I think is why I feel so passionate about Black travel and visibility. I was so glad when I saw that in the script.

It feels like this season we are exploring Belinda’s personal life more. There’s definitely a flirty energy between her and her staff mentor, Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul). Where is Belinda romantically, this season?

In season one, there’s a fun scene with me and Jennifer Coolidge on the boat and we kind of improvise and talk about dating and how hard it is. [Belinda] has been a full-time employee of the White Lotus and a full-time mom. I think she put herself on the back shelf.

For most people, travel is an opportunity to audition a version of yourself and try things that you wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity or bandwidth to try at home. Pornchai, when he meets her, he sees her. He sees her, and her passion is his passion. There’s something intoxicating when you’re across from someone that sees you, and that knows what it is that you’re into and takes an interest in you. I can’t say whether or not that spark is cashed ultimately, but what I will say is Dom is an incredible actor. It feels like he’s the gardener and she’s the flower, and she’s opening up in front of him.

Pornchai really does embody the spirit of the Thai people, and that is to be present and open and accepting. Belinda doesn’t have to pretend to be anything other than who she is. That’s an amazing ingredient to have in thinking about potential partnership.

The third season began with Belinda’s son, Zion (Nicholas DuVernay), praying to a statue of Buddha to protect his mother as gunshots rang out at the hotel. How worried should we be for Belinda?

I’m worried for everyone [laughs]. At the start of the season, it’s an adrenaline rush where actually you’re just thrown into bedlam. Obviously we’re not on set when other people are shooting their storylines. Sometimes I like to sit down and watch how the sausage is made, but I didn’t see that scene. I remember talking to Nicholas about it afterward—to see the amount of fear he has in his eyes. It’s such a great setup for what’s going to happen this season and how it all plays out.