Jennifer Coolidge, ‘The White Lotus’ Team Tease Season 2's Italian Saga: “It's Going to Shock People Quite a Bit More Than the First”

Jennifer Coolidge and the 'White Lotus' team — creator Mike White, Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray Abraham and Michael Imperioli — talked about season two's Italian saga at the TV show premiere.

Jennifer Coolidge, ‘The White Lotus’ Team Tease Season 2’s Italian Saga: “It’s Going to Shock People Quite a Bit More Than the First”

From left: Haley Lu Richardson, Simona Tabasco, Meghann Fahy, Beatrice Grannò, Jennifer Coolidge, Mike White, Will Sharpe, Sabrina Impacciatore, Michael Imperioli, F. Murray Abraham and Adam DiMarco attend the ‘White Lotus’ season two premiere.Amy Sussman/Getty Images

After an internet-dominating first season, The White Lotus is back for season two, now set in Sicily with a whole new cast — and the return of Jennifer Coolidge.

“Jennifer is my friend, we’ve been friends for a long time — 15, 17 years — and we always talked about working together. Then the last season happened, she was so well received on the show, and so I was just like, ‘We can’t go to Italy and not bring Jennifer, she’ll kill me,'” creator Mike White told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s Los Angeles premiere Thursday, of the decision to bring back Coolidge’s clueless millionaire Tanya McQuoid.

The star said she was thrilled when White asked her to return, noting that while filming in Sicily, “I had this amazing adventure — the part was really cool, the story is amazing, Mike wrote this incredible, epic tale. It’s a very complicated story, but it’s riveting and I’m so proud of Mike and so happy to be involved in anything like this, ever.”

Gries said that when he got the call to return, though, “It was a surprise. The fact is I did think I was going to be coming back, but I thought I was going to be coming back as a box of ashes for Jennifer to be scattering in Sicily.”

The show’s newcomers include Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Meghann Fahy and Will Sharpe, as two very different couples on an international trip together; F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli and Adam DiMarco as three generations tracing their Sicilian roots; and Federico Ferrante and Sabrina Impacciatore as the White Lotus hotel staffers.

Aubrey Plaza and Jennifer Coolidge and having a laugh and striking a pose at the premiere of #TheWhiteLotus pic.twitter.com/BHXN0kpDR4
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 21, 2022

“I like a mix,” White said of how he chooses his casts for the show. “It’s fun to work with actors that you have a familiarity with, and I believe in the audition process and I want to know what people are going to bring to it. I tend not to just offer parts, but then certain people I’m just a huge fan of — like Murray Abraham, I know he’s going to be able to do it.”

And while season one’s Hawaii-set story focused heavily on wealth and privilege, this season is more about relationships, said the cast.

“The Italian of it, the location of it, changes what it is existentially. It’s about the clash of Americana meets European meets Sicilian and Italian,” said James. “It’s about sexual politics, it’s heavily about gender and gender roles. Obviously they were peppered in but they were different themes in the first season, whereas I think this season those are the predominant themes and Mike tackles them in the way he does so well. It’s funny but it’s also quite hyper-political and very rich in social satire.”

Added Gries, “It’s about the inability of people to properly communicate, it’s very subtle and slow — it’s like taking a long walk with a pebble in your shoe.”

Gries also promised that this season “is going to shock people quite a bit more than the first, the last two episodes particularly … a few faces are going to be frozen in total shock.” But will there be a moment to rival Murray Bartlett’s now-famous pooping-in-a-suitcase scene?

“I don’t know if it’ll be as scatological as that, but I think the finale has some water cooler moments for sure,” teased White.

Inside the premiere, held at Hollywood’s Goya Studios, White revealed in his pre-screening speech that he just turned in the final episode two days ago, and got emotional during his comments.

“I know there are certain people here that I have not come through for, which is my friends and my family because I’ve just been totally gone and AWOL, so I just want to thank you for sticking with me,” he said, while calling his mom his rock. “Thank you all for being here, and let’s party tonight.”

The White Lotus premieres on HBO on Oct. 30.