All is well at The White Lotus in Thailand. Surrounded by lush greenery; sounds of water rippling; cicadas clicking away. A meditation session is underway between Amrita, a spiritual counsellor, and a new young guest, Zion—before, all of a sudden, chaos breaks loose. Such is the scene that unfolds in the first few minutes of The White Lotus Season 3; an instant tell that the third instalment of Mike White’s brilliant dramedy will be unfolding in a slightly different undertone as compared to its predecessors.
“This season takes on a darker tone so it’ll be very interesting to see what people make of it. I’m also very excited to see The White Lotus in Asia—in our part of the world,” muses Shalini Peiris, the Sri Lankan actress who plays Amrita. There’s a sense of quiet confidence and self-assuredness that Peiris exudes when she is discussing her role in the show’s third season, one partially also borne from her shared identity with the show’s choice of locale for the third season. A pivotal bit of Hollywood television which puts Asia’s—or in this case, Thailand’s—culture at its front and centre.
It’s rare yet momentous in its own way, considering the sort of reach The White Lotus has on the rest of the world. An opportunity that’s also only possible with an anthology format; its rotating cast of characters an instant gateway to discovering different cultures across the globe. The third instalment has also notably garnered much buzz prior, simply due to it being the acting debut for Thai K-pop superstar Lisa Manoban. “The scale of the show is quite its own experience. There’s a different level of visibility altogether; though I think about half of my DMs are asking me to introduce them to Lisa from Blackpink,” Peiris laughs.
Even then, Peiris is clear about wanting to push the envelope further—in her own way. “I would love to find ways to bring our (Asian) stories to the global stage. The dream would be to find a way to do cross-cultural storytelling, doing projects across different Asian countries,” she adds. And with Season 3 of The White Lotus so evidently focused on showcasing varying facets of Thai culture and its practices, it doesn’t seem like the dream is too far away.
Amid the release of the highly-anticipated third season, Shalini Peiris opens up to Vogue Singapore about her role, filming the show in Thailand, and her personal hopes for Asian representation and storytelling in the industry.
There’s plenty of hype around the release of the third season—and you’ve been in the midst of all these wonderful premieres. How are you feeling about it?
I’m so excited and I mean if the actors are feeling that…I can’t imagine how it is for Mike (White) and the creative team who’s been nurturing this project for so long. I think the show is very ready to be received, but there’s also anticipation for how the audience will receive it.
Could you tell us a little more about your role in The White Lotus Season 3?
I play Amrita, who is a spiritual counsellor and a meditation teacher, she’s part of the wellness team in Thailand. She has a particularly significant storyline with Walton Goggins’s character, Rick. Getting to work with Walton was a real treat.
How was it like filming the show in Thailand?
Thailand is one of my favourite places—and shooting The White Lotus just sort of reaffirmed that. It’s easy to see why so many filming projects come to Thailand; their talent and crew are just top notch. It was lovely. It was very hot and I know a lot of people struggled with the heat and monsoon rains, but other than that, I think people were instantly swept away by how well they were taken care of. You know, with how Asian hospitality always goes the extra mile.
Was The White Lotus something you’ve been following over the years?
Yes I’m a super fan. I’ve watched both seasons twice over. I’m also most excited as a fan first, to see Season 3. It’s always been one of my favourite shows and I’ve thought to myself as an actor: “If only I could be in something like that.” So it’s been very surreal, an out-of-body experience really.
Tell us more about the process of landing your role. How did you feel when you got it?
It was surprisingly simple. Actually, I think Mike kind of knows who he wants when he sees them. And everyone, including HBO and all the bigger powers, trusts that he knows what he’s doing. So it was a very simple process. I don’t think many of us had more than two rounds, but mine was off a self tape…and just surprisingly very easy.
How did you prepare for your role?
I mean I always do like mountains of research. I have a whole book where I just build my character, and I have an incredible teacher whom I worked with one-on-one, Lawrence O’Connor. He specialises in the Meisner technique, so we did coaching sessions for certain scenes. I also did a lot of research related to the character, like the training that she probably would have had to undertake to be a counsellor, because her focus was specifically on Buddhism and meditation. I was raised Buddhist and Christian—my parents are of two different religions—but I did this deep dive into Buddhism so that I could be more well versed in it.
What was the experience like shooting with the other cast members? Was there any shared memory with a specific cast member that was particularly memorable for you?
Most of my scenes were with Walton Goggins, and he’s very much an actor’s actor. So I think the experience and combination of working with him and Mike White was a massive career highlight—I think it will always be. He’s an incredible actor, and I think what he does in this show is going to be a real talking point.
Also, it didn’t happen very often, but I did love when there were bigger group scenes. Or just scenes where we would overlap on set, so that it would be quite a lot of us on set at the same time. Because we would all be in the green room, chatting over Thai iced tea and snacks, and it was just nice to just be on set together.
I’m sure you’ve watched a fair number of episodes, if not all of it. What do you love most about the show?
I think it has to be how strongly Thailand and Asian culture is weaved throughout. Seeing Asia underlie everything is really cool. But also just the aesthetic of this show, because it already looks very dreamy, but then the dream is quickly punctured. Our incredible director of photography, Ben Kutchins, who’s created what we now know as The White Lotus aesthetic, he’s so good at taking you through five or six different story lines before leaving you at the end of an episode with a scene that makes you think you’re not quite sure where this is going to go.
The landscape of Asian representation in film and television, or at least Hollywood film and television, is changing. As a South Asian and Sri Lankan, what are your personal hopes for that slowly growing space?
A huge goal of mine would be to nurture the industry in Sri Lanka, which is sadly very under resourced, even though it has an abundance of talent. I would love to find ways to bring our (Asian) stories to the global stage. We’re slowly starting to see it happen more, of course. Like we grew up idolising and watching Michelle Yeoh. We always knew how incredible she was. But the world is finally getting to see that now. With the success of huge shows like Squid Game or Shōgun, I think it does prove that there is an appetite for more diverse stories. So I really hope that we’re going to continue in that direction. But yeah, the dream would be to find a way to do cross-cultural storytelling and doing projects across different Asian countries.
What is your biggest takeaway from working on The White Lotus?
I think…just actually feeling like I’ve earned it. You know, I think it’s been like a 15-year-long journey for me. And it’s been a very, very bumpy ride. There have been times that I considered walking away because it was just too hard. When you’re basing your entire sense of self-worth on being an actor and you’re going 10 or 11 months without work, it becomes very hard to feel like you know who you are. So it has been a really long fight. So to be at this stage is very surreal. It was a very emotional experience and at the beginning I even questioned if there was some kind of admin mix-up. So it took some getting used to; I had to sit in it for a bit and tell myself: “No, yeah, you’re ready for this. You deserve this.”
Do you have any dream roles that you would love to explore next?
I would love to do comedy because I think it’s probably the hardest to do comedy and to do it well. So just putting that out there, yeah (laughs).
WatchThe White Lotus Season 3 on Max.
