Inside The White Lotus’s blowout Bangkok premiere

Arriving in Bangkok on Thursday, the White Lotus experience began before I reached the outer city limits. As I left the airport and looked through the blacked-out windows of my car, I could see an enormous billboard lit up to read ‘Sawadsee Ka’ – Thai for ‘welcome’ – above an image of a white lotus flower. (The only direct giveaway it was related to the show at all? A discrete HBO logo in the bottom corner.)

Yes, for the third season of Mike White’s trouble-in-paradise HBO series, his privileged guests are heading east – to Thailand. Continuing the tradition of filming at a Four Seasons hotel, this time around, they’ll be checking into the brand’s lavish, wellness-focused resort in Koh Samui. Here, it kickstarts a season that meditates on spirituality, family, and each guest’s readiness (or not) to shuffle off this mortal coil. As ever, the magic lies not just in the intricately plotted mystery (or, more accurately, multiple intertwining mysteries) that will keep the audience tuning in every week, but in the richly drawn characters and the thoughtful performances that bring them to life. There’s the trio of glamorous 40-something women reuniting for a girl’s trip, with their latent resentments bubbling just underneath the surface, played to perfection by Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, and Leslie Bibb. There’s the middle-aged wheeler-dealer boyfriend and his younger, wide-eyed girlfriend played by Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood. There’s the dysfunctional Southern family headed up by Parker Posey and Jason Isaacs, whose affluent lifestyle is on the precipice of unraveling. The show’s most striking element, however? White’s ability to conjure the sense that somehow, you actually know these people.

Given the Thai setting, the decision was made soon after filming wrapped to throw an elaborate, no-expenses-spared premiere event in Bangkok: a weekend of events revolving around the opulent setting of the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, ranked the third-best hotel in the world by World’s 50 Best in 2023. And in a White Lotus-worthy twist of fate – and what might just be the quickest “yes” I’ve said to anything ever – I was invited to come along for the ride.

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After a day of sampling the hotel’s various pools and restaurants (and a quick dash to the mall to buy an emergency suit after leaving mine in London), I headed down to the hotel’s private waterfront, where the cast began to gather around the Palmier restaurant, a heavy security presence lining the perimeter. Just beyond were a handful of Blackpink super fans who’d clearly had the smart idea to come here, rather than the premiere red carpet, to catch a glimpse of their idol. Sure enough, at around 5.30PM, Lisa emerged, resplendent in a sweeping pink satin Louis Vuitton gown and Bvlgari jewels, and without so much as a single bead of sweat on her forehead. She headed towards the flotilla of White Lotus-branded (and mercifully air-conditioned) boats that were pulled up at the dock, to head upriver to the Iconsiam mall where the screening was taking place.

Yet even though she’s a genuinely world-dominating megastar – with 105 million Instagram followers and the eye-popping album sales records to prove it – Lisa’s first foray into acting saw her jump through the same hoops as any aspiring starlet. “I was already a big fan of the show, and I heard they were going to shoot in Thailand, so I was like, ‘Oh my God, I really want to try out for this!’” Lisa told Vogue ahead of the screening, breaking out into a grin. “I sent in my self-tape—and now, I feel so lucky to be a part of The White Lotus family.” Given her globe-trotting lifestyle, how was it to spend so many uninterrupted months back in her home country during filming? “I moved to Korea when I was 14, so it’s really rare for me to stay in Thailand that long, and I was so happy to be back,” she said. “I got to spend time with my mom, with my family—and it was really nice to have Thai food every day. I loved it.” If the throngs of fans lining the barriers of the red carpet were anything to go by (their screams were audible from the water), Thailand certainly loves Lisa back.

A second wave of glammed-up cast members spilled off the dock and onto the red carpet – including Posey looking oh-so-White Lotus in a billowing floral caftan dress and clutching a handheld fan, and two of this season’s breakout stars, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola, looking mildly terrified by the baying crowd of Lisa fans beyond. It was a moment for them all to reflect on spending half a year in Thailand filming the show, and the experience of returning to the Land of Smiles to celebrate. “I spent seven months here, so it’s been amazing to see all of the familiar faces of all the crew and the hotel staff who were so kind to us and so hospitable,” said Patrick Schwarzenegger, after stepping into the drinks event ahead of the screening in a dapper pinstripe woollen suit from the Tommy Hilfiger archives, before adding: “Although I maybe wasn’t thinking properly when I picked this outfit out, because I was sweating a lot on the carpet.”

Indeed, the cast’s near-universal top tip for anyone inspired by the show to book their own trip to Thailand? “Bring a small battery-powered fan,” deadpanned Natasha Rothwell, whose fan-favourite character from season one, the wellness therapist Belinda, makes a welcome return. “Oh, and know that it will ruin Thai food back in the U.S. for you, forever.” (As Posey memorably put it when I spoke to her: “There are three seasons in Thailand: hot, hotter, and hottest.”)

As guests were whisked back to the Four Seasons after the screening, the temperature hovered somewhere around Posey’s definition of “hotter”—not least after stepping onto the terrace to find an army of fire-breathing dancers performing in time to a remix of Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s now-iconic White Lotus theme tune. (“I feel like we’ve actually stepped into the show,” I overheard one guest say, with unironic glee.) As White and the cast stationed themselves on a sofa – tucking into mini plates of khao man gai and duck curry and washing it down with one of the array of White Lotus-themed cocktails – fireworks began to erupt over the river, invoking a chorus of “oohs” and “aahs.” Then, an evening of delightfully madcap entertainment truly began, beginning with an eye-popping lip sync to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” courtesy of the legendary local drag queen Pangina Heals and a performance from Thai rap sensation Milli.

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At around 11 p.m., the cast quietly snuck away for a VVIP after party at the hotel’s jewel box bar BKK Social Club, where Sophie Ellis-Bextor took to a makeshift stage to perform “Murder on the Dancefloor,” while HBO executives toasted to a successful premiere with salt-rimmed Palomas.

The experience of being back in the care of Thailand’s famously impeccable hospitality had many of the cast once again feeling a little nostalgic – for some, their stay in Bangkok even took them all the way back to their first day of arriving at the Four Seasons in Koh Samui. “I cried. I walked in and I actually cried. It was that stunning,” remembered Rothwell. “Actually, I take that back. I cried the next morning because I arrived at night, and so I didn't know how much my jaw would drop. I just remember waking up the next day and then opening the curtains and just…” Because they had to take over the resort in its entirety, many of their accommodations were actual suites and villas in the hotel. “I was taken through the resort by golf cart and they said, ‘This is your villa, and this is your butler,’” Jason Isaacs recalled. “I thought: This must be a prank TV show, and there’s a camera hidden somewhere. This can’t be real.”

The premiere weekend, too, felt a little surreal – and not just because of the jetlag. As I noted earlier, watching the show leaves you with the sense that you actually know these people – or at the very least the sense that you have, at some point, met them in real life. As the cast described, the lines began to blur between their characters and their real selves after staying in those luxurious villas during filming; things, for me, also seemed to blur a little over the course of the Bangkok premiere, where the cast had the run of the hotel for the three days. Was that Isaacs taking a call by the pool? Was that colourful muumuu I spotted fluttering around a corner Posey rushing to a spa appointment? I can say with some certainty that I found myself sharing an elevator with Schwarzenegger on multiple occasions. (And that was definitely Lisa in a black corset slipping into the afterparty surreptitiously with a group of friends, dancing away to Diana Ross in a corner booth.)

It’s a feeling that, as Posey observed when we spoke at the party, has come to be somewhat defined by The White Lotus. “Mike White has created a trope,” she said. “Now you say, ‘Oh, this is very White Lotus’ when you’re staying somewhere nice, and you’re watching other people and guessing what they do or what their relationships are.” She paused, before adding: “And then you have people going on vacation and acting like they’re actually in the White Lotus.” (Guilty as charged.)

It’s little wonder, then, that HBO and Four Seasons have made their partnership official this time around: Even if the show features a guest getting, y’know, murdered each season, it’s nice to know that Four Seasons is in on the joke. Plus, of course, there’s the simple fact that the siren-song lure of Thailand’s on-screen beauty will be impossible for any viewer to resist. As Lisa put it to me: “I feel like after the audience sees this season, people are going to book their flights here right away.” May the next round of White Lotus fever begin – Thailand is ready and waiting.