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- [00:00]
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- [00:42]
Mike White
I think it's like every kid growing up wants to be the hero of.
- [00:49]
Evan Ross Katz
The story and in the end.
- [00:53]
Mike White
You know, you're just happy you're not the villain. You know what I'm saying? Is this about mom making more money than you? No, it's not about that.
- [01:11]
Dan Savage
Hi everyone, I'm Evan Ross Katz and welcome to the final Look Back episode of the White Lotus Official podcast from hbo. I know. Bittersweet Mike White, the show's writer, director and creator, was a success story in Hollywood long before the White Lotus. He. He'd made movies and television and had even competed on reality shows. But he was catapulted to a whole new echelon of stardom in 2021 when the White Lotus made him a household name. By that point, I'd been covering pop culture and entertainment for over a decade. I knew that nobody was doing it quite like him. One thing that makes Mike's projects so distinctly Mike White is that he tends to work as a one stop shop, an anomaly in Hollywood. Most TV these days is made by teams. Scripts are crafted by writers rooms and a roster of directors tackle each season of episodes. Given the array of talent, it's sometimes hard to tell which ideas come from where or who to credit for what. But Mike, he spins all those plates all on his own. So today for our grand finale, we're taking a step back to a pre White Lotus era to retrace the work and life experiences that shaped Mike's earlier career. Because to understand the White Lotus, you have to understand Mike White. Mike's story starts in the 1970s in the foothills of Pasadena, near Sierra Madre Eaton Canyon, just a five minute walk from the forest.
- [02:49]
Mike White
I was living in the suburbs. I was up in like the foothills of Pasadena and I was bored a lot. I kind. I built out an imaginative world because I was understimulated in a sense. I wasn't weird because I. I mean I'M sure I was weird, but I wasn't like a social misfit in the classic way that you might expect me to be. I was an albino practically growing up in Southern California with a bunch of surfer buddies and skateboarder buddies. You know, I wasn't somebody who like smoked pot and wanted to listen to Bob Marley and chill. I was like, I'd get stoned and my mind would be hyper mental and I would be wanting to write stuff or think about things and whatever.
- [03:32]
Dan Savage
Mike's father, Mel White, was a minister and deeply embedded in the local Christian community. As such, religion played an integral role in Mike's upbringing.
- [03:40]
Mike White
When I was little, I was a good God fearing kid. My parents sent me to a secular school, which was their great error because I realized, like, I went to like this preppy school with a lot of rich kids and I didn't want to be those kids, but I, I could tell they had better shoes, I could tell they had better toys. I could tell they had better summer vacations. And then I would go back to the religious community that I was in where they were like all wearing polyester pants and like, I don't know, we'd have Bible camp and I was just like, this is lame. I went to Bible summer camp and I thought I was possessed by the devil because I couldn't. They'd be like, go find Jesus and accept Jesus into your heart. And then like, I'd go out into the night and I'd be like, jesus never showed up. So I was just like, maybe I'm Satan's spawn or something.
- [04:35]
Dan Savage
He received an introduction to playwriting at a young age by his second grade teacher, who happened to be the mother of the playwright and actor Sam Shepard. Very, very la.
- [04:45]
Mike White
I, like, bought his play when I was young and I, I got really into the way plays were written on the pa. I was just into words and plays and I don't know. So like I, I had a pretty imaginative life. And I would try to like get the kids at school to reenact Airport 77 on the bleachers. Just like always trying to like, make things more interesting than just playing tag or whatever the fuck they were into. When I was young, I really wanted to be older and sophisticated and I got a subscription to the New Yorker and would read Pauline Kael reviews. And I was just a little precocious in ways that I'm not even anymore. As I became an adult, I cared less about being an adult. I didn't think I was necessarily going to be like in the movie business or whatever. But I thought maybe I'd be, like, a playwright in New York City, like Edward Albee.
- [05:40]
Dan Savage
Mike went on to attend Wesleyan University, a liberal arts college in Connecticut. Culturally, it was a sea change.
- [05:47]
Mike White
Wesleyan was a lot of liberal Jewish kids from New York. And, I mean, and there was lots beyond that. But it was just a very stimulating group of people. They were just more interested in some of the cultural stuff that I was into kind of on my own in Pasadena. And just. They're very engaged with the world. You know, a lot of activists, a lot of people talking philosophy and theory. And it was great, great as far as, like, a budding playwright, because it gave me a space to just do the stuff I wanted to do. They just had a place where I could get people together and put on little stuff and develop a voice. I mean, the people that I met at Wesleyan are still some of the good friends I have to this day, including Meredith.
- [06:27]
Dan Savage
During his freshman spring at Wesleyan, Mike met Meredith Tucker in an acting class. She was a history major. While Mike was studying theater, Meredith would go on to become a casting director and eventually cast the White Lotus. But before all that, they were theater buddies.
- [06:43]
Molly Shannon
He's a really good actor, and one thing about all this writing is that he's not acting anymore. But I remember end of our sophomore year, they did Our Town, and he played the choirmaster, the drunken choirmaster. And I remember there was one scene, it was silent scene. He's, like, walking across stage. And the guy was a drunkard. I just remember I was like, that guy is a great actor. And everyone knew, like, you kind of knew. Like, he was just so much more talented than the rest of us and just so much more interesting than the rest of us. And what was interesting is he had all these older women theater majors who were, like, gobbed onto him. Cause I think they clearly knew he was friends with all, like, the senior and junior actresses. And, like, everyone kind of saw that he. That he was going places. We had a review show sophomore year, and I was in his number. It was Broadway, baby. I was like a homeless woman who's harassing theater goers. I still remember I could do the monologue that he wrote beforehand.
- [07:51]
Meredith Tucker
But I will spare you all now.
- [07:54]
Molly Shannon
I joke that I knew back in, like, 1989 to, like, grab onto his coattails and never let go. He's been so good to me. I mean, he's changed my life, you know, both professionally and personally.
- [08:09]
Dan Savage
After college, Mike thought he might move to New York to pursue playwriting Instead, the movie business beckoned and he returned to his west coast roots.
- [08:17]
Mike White
There was a guy in my writing class who's older than I was, who came out to Hollywood and had sold some stuff with another guy. And then that partnership ended. And so I literally got out of school and this guy was like, come to LA and maybe I have a job for you. I was planning on going to New York and be a whatever, struggling playwright. But then, yeah, so I went to LA and I got work kind of right away that got me a foot in the door. And then I started just building out my own stuff.
- [08:48]
Dan Savage
When Mike was 24, his dad Mel came out as gay in the whites conservative Christian community. Mel's coming out was a bombshell.
- [08:58]
Mike White
All of his community of friends rejected not only him, but like the whole family for some reason. So I just, I ended up feeling very uninterested in the hypocrisy of that kind of religious community where everybody's like fronting and.
- [09:14]
Hunter Harris
Yeah, well, I was familiar with Mike White initially because of who his father was.
- [09:20]
Dan Savage
This is Dan Savage again. I'll let him tell you a little bit more about Mel.
- [09:24]
Hunter Harris
He was a ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell Sr. And I read Jerry Falwell Sr. S books. I'm a little bit, you know, I have Anita Bryant's books. There's some part of me that wants to crawl into their twisted little brains and, and put my feet up and stay a while. And there's kind of a lesson in Mel White's life. The way gay people lived when we were closeted. You couldn't risk attracting too much attention or scrutiny to yourself. So you lived through other people, you lived through straight people, which as a ghostwriter is what Mel White did. He lived through people like Jerry Falwell and hid behind them. And what better closet door than Jerry fucking Falwell Senior For a gay man who doesn't want to be scrutinized, doesn't want to be discovered. And the lesson in Mike White's career is once gay people are freed from having to hide and sublimate. Look at what gay people can create. Look at what gay people can do when they welcome scrutiny, criticism, attention, in the way Mike has welcomed it.
- [10:31]
Dan Savage
In 2000, Mike made the movie that you might call his big break, the indie black comedy Chuck and Buck, which he both wrote and starred in. The story follows a 27 year old amateur playwright who's essentially stalking his childhood best friend, a guy he'd experimented with sexually when they were younger.
- [10:48]
Mike White
Do you remember we used to play games like, we were businessmen. Remember, we bought all those office supplies, and now you're, like, really doing it. Is it real now, or is it still like a game?
- [11:02]
Dan Savage
The movie premiered at Sundance. In the indie world, it was a minor sensation, but it also earned Mike a lot of flack.
- [11:09]
Mike White
Some people had a really strong, like, hostile reaction to the movie, to me, as a Persona in the movie. And it had such a variety of reactions that I. I realized I'll never be understood. You know what I mean? Like, I just kind of gave up, and, like. And I realized, like, if you're making stuff, like, the kinds of stuff that I like to make, it begs for a varied reaction. So if some people are gonna hate it, that's part of what I'm doing. Chuck and Buck, it was a small movie, didn't have a huge release or whatever, but I think because the script was so divisive, and people were telling me, like, I'm not gonna fund this movie, and you should not give people this script. And then the movie came out, and, like, you know, Entertainment Weekly named it the best movie of the year. Of the year it came out. But it was also, for me, like, it made me go, okay, I can actually express myself in this medium, and I should go with my gut, and I should keep trying to develop that voice and not just be a writer for hire, because at the time, I'd written on Dawson's Creek and Freaks and Geeks, and I had a knack for being able to write other kinds of things. And so it was like, to me, that was probably the thing that made me double down on myself, I guess.
- [12:26]
Dan Savage
Mike went on to write a bunch more movies in his developing voice, including Orange county, the Good Girl, and his biggest hit to date, School of Rock, in which Mike played the unforgettable Ned Schneebly.
- [12:37]
David Bernad
Just dump her, man.
- [12:38]
Mike White
Yeah, well, if you don't come up with some money, she's gonna dump me. She's fed up, really, because that would be a good thing.
- [12:44]
David Bernad
She's a nightmare.
- [12:45]
Mike White
Come on. I may never have another girlfriend. I mean, just come on.
- [12:49]
Dan Savage
In 2004, he came out with Cracking Up, a sitcom on Fox about a wacky rich family in Beverly Hills. Molly Shannon played the mom Mike and.
- [12:58]
Meredith Tucker
I met for coffee in New York City. This was years ago, before I had kids, and we just got along so well. We went out for iced coffee downtown, and then we just kept walking and talking and walking and talking. And he was like, yeah, I think you're too young to Play the mom in Cracking Up. You're too young. But we just got along as friends. It was like an instant click. We just. It was great. So. But then he came back around and was like, actually, I think you would be great to play the mom in Cracking Up. So then he cast me as the mom. I remember I saw an actress on an airplane. She's like, oh, you're so lucky. Every actress wanted that part of the mom on Cracking Up. That's like the best part because she was like a pill popping alcoholic with a complicated marriage. And so they have a therapist that moves into their house to help them with their kids and their. And I remember thinking, yeah, I feel so lucky. I got this great park. It just. It was just the greatest job ever. Cracking up ended up being stressful for Mike, which he has spoken openly about in the past, because the network was like, wait, we don't. We don't know. We don't want Molly locked up in the bathroom, pill popping. We want her like I love Lucy. And, you know, they just gave these notes that were so frustrating to Mike. But Mike and I became very aligned during that process because I was like, don't be hard on Mike. He's my king. Like Jason Schwartzman and I were like, oh, Mike's are everything. And the scripts were brilliant. Like, why are they bothering him? They were the greatest scripts. Gifts from God and a true joy and pleasure to perform. Brilliant, funny, ahead of its time. Like a primo Mike White comedy show.
- [14:45]
Dan Savage
After Cracking up finished, Mike contacted Molly with an idea for a new movie, Year of the Dog, about a secretary whose dog dies. This time, Mike directed the movie too.
- [14:55]
Meredith Tucker
Mike stuck his neck out for me because I think that they would have preferred at that time a different woman as the lead for that movie and the financing. And Mike was like, no, I want Molly. I only want to make it with Molly. And so he really changed my career because I feel that with Mike, people started to learn that I could do drama. I got known famous from Saturday Night Live, but Mike was like, oh, Mike really knew me and could see me, could write for me. So I credit Mike to changing my whole career. I'm so grateful to Mike.
- [15:28]
Dan Savage
This brings us to the 2010s when Mike got to work developing his most ambitious project to date, his first series for hbo. Enlightened. I talked to the critic and writer Hunter Harris about the show's cultural significance and how it relates to the White Lotus.
- [15:44]
David Bernad
Enlightened kind of felt like a secret shared amongst, like, the, you know, people that I really respected and admired. Like, oh, my gosh, have you seen Enlightened? Like, you haven't seen anything until you've seen Enlightened. To call it like, an office dramedy sounds like, too reductive almost, because the show really, like, Blossoms and Blue in so many really emotional ways. Laura Dern plays this woman who's just teetering on the edge of a breakdown, and she comes back to work after a breakdown, and you see her trying to build new friendships, trying to make her life feel as big on the outside as it does maybe to her internally. There's one really incredible scene where Laura Dern has this whole monologue about how, like, she has this renewed sense of empathy for her mother because she acknowledges that her mother was, like, also once a child and that she has to kind of mother both of them in this, like, very prickly, difficult dynamic between the two of them.
- [16:39]
Meredith Tucker
I will stop waiting for you to be the perfect mother. I will be patient with you.
- [16:46]
David Bernad
And the fact that Mike White was able to capture that so personally and also so viscerally, like, the rage of, like, why can't you be the mother I wanted you to be? But also, I'm not the daughter that you wanted probably either. I mean, really, it's like some of the best writing on television I've seen ever. Between Enlightened and the White Lotus, you can just see how specific the vision is across any kind of setting. Enlightened kind of feels very far from White Lotus, and yet they both feel like they're made from the same specific brain. That is, you know, the mark of someone who I think is, like, really good at what they do. Loradern feels like she's doing a good thing and, like, really desperately wants to do a good thing. And that's what makes that so tragic. You can feel how much she wants to improve herself and improve everyone else, but she just keeps bucking up against this wall of everyone else's ego. But she's still trying, Whereas on the White Lotus, I think this desire to change others is much more out of control and dominance.
- [17:48]
Dan Savage
Enlightened ran for two seasons before getting canceled, much to the disappointment of fans. I'm still mad.
- [17:54]
David Bernad
I mean, this is gonna sound weird, but I can totally see why it got canceled. Like, it's too good. It's too smart. You had gold in your hands watching this show.
- [18:05]
Dan Savage
Around this time, Mike made a perhaps unexpected career move. He went on reality tv, first appearing on two seasons of the Amazing Race and then memorably on Survivor.
- [18:15]
Angelina Keeley
I had Breakfast with Mike the day before he left, and he told me his whole strategy, which I won't repeat.
- [18:22]
Dan Savage
David Bernad saw Mike through his whole Survivor adventure.
- [18:25]
Angelina Keeley
I do think that's the best season. That's my favorite season of Survivor. Obviously, I'm biased, but incredible. Incredible. I had lunch with him the day he got back, and he had lost a lot of weight. But, you know, he said. He. He said to me, he. He was sixth out, and then he had a party at his house for that episode. So I went in going, I know. I'm like, I have a secret. No one else knows. He's going out. And he was being funny because that episode, he won the immunity challenge, and I ran around his house. It was a part. It was probably like 50 people there with my arms raised, yelling like a maniac, knowing that he had lied to me and that he keeps going forward. We were there at the live. It was a live finale and him winning that fire immunity challenge. I stood up in the live audience and I just yelled uncontrollably. My arms raised like a child. And. And I said to this Mike, it's probably one of the happiest moments of my life. And I really thought he was gonna win. He should have won.
- [19:19]
Dan Savage
He should have won in a just world. Hunter Harris was also a fan on.
- [19:23]
David Bernad
Survivor, specifically where people hide, you know, if they went to an IV or like, if they're a psychiatrist or if they're a cop or something like that. Cause, like, you know, you always have a target on your back if you have one of these jobs. He did such a good job of being like, oh, I just kind of work in Hollywood. I just work in tv. When he's not, like, maybe one of the most astute, I don't know, observationist in working in television, which I would be like, tuck it on your back immediately. You're too good at this game. I think he's so good at playing sweet, but also playing very cunning, but also not being too cunning, but also being very playful, friendly. And, I mean, honestly, if you've talked to anyone who's directed actors, that sounds like exactly what you need to do.
- [20:01]
Dan Savage
They're seemingly strange bedfellows, Survivor and the White Lotus, and yet I feel like they are a great double feature. Do you see similarities between the two shows?
- [20:09]
David Bernad
Absolutely. I mean, Survivor, first of all, let me say this. When I started watching Survivor, I thought it was a show that you watched in the hospital. I thought this was a show that you watched on your deathbed. Plug is about to Be pulled. And Survivor's just on. Like, I thought it was like daytime tv, but when I started watching this series, I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, there are so many social dynamics. Physical dynamics, of course, but the way that you can start an episode on the bottom and end not on the top, but at the top of the middle, which is exactly where you want to be. And that's kind of where he rode throughout the entire season, which is perfect, because you want to be someone on Survivor who is seen as not a weakness but also not a huge competitor for someone at the very end. You want to be the person that they bring along with them, but you also don't want to be someone that's like, oh, I can cut you easily and not feel like I'm losing a real vote. And that, I think, is. That's really the mark of a genius. Honestly, that means more to me than Mensa.
- [21:06]
Dan Savage
For those of you who are familiar with my work, you might know that my dedication to Survivor goes way beyond fandom. I'm a connoisseur of the show. I even have my own podcast dedicated to it called Drop youp Buffs. You could say I'm kind of obsessive. So when I knew we'd be talking about Mike's time on Survivor, there were two people I absolutely knew we had to get.
- [21:25]
Alec Merlino
Your character had a name, though. Like. Like, that's a big deal.
- [21:28]
Evan Ross Katz
It did have a name.
- [21:29]
Alec Merlino
I was American Woman number two. Okay. I was nameless.
- [21:34]
Dan Savage
Angelina Keeley and Alec Merlino both joined Mike during the David versus Goliath season of Survivor. The three of them kept in touch afterward, so much so that Mike actually invited Alec to appear on season one of the White Lotus in a small role and then invited Angelina, as well as another cast member, Cara, onto season two. But before that, they were just strangers meeting on an island.
- [21:55]
Evan Ross Katz
I remember getting off the little. You know, when we paddle on the raft and we all get off and we can finally talk to each other. People are kind of sizing each other up. And Mike never stood out. Not in a bad way. No one stood out. And then it was a week in, someone mentioned, do you know who that is? And I said, no. And they're like, haven't you ever seen School of Rock? And I'm like, oh, Ned Schneebly. And then that was that. You know, I didn't know, like, how much he had written. I didn't really know to what extent who he was until I got to the White Lotus. And then I'm like, oh, dang. Like, this guy's a big deal. He's in charge. Everyone goes to Mike. I'm like, dang. He's like the king Kingpin Mike.
- [22:40]
David Bernad
I feel like this is gonna be.
- [22:41]
Alec Merlino
This needs to be a nickname. Mike's game was so social. Like, he and Kara, I think, were the best social players of our season. Like, hands down, he had a way of cutting through the game and transcending it and making you feel like a human again and not just a player who's playing this competitive game. He and I connected about our French Bulldogs, about being vegan and vegetarian. And Mike did such a good job of kind of, like, laying low. Like, he. I think he knew that for the people who knew of his stardom, he wanted to kind of, like, temper that with, like, just being a really laid back person. And he is laid back. So I think that naturally came out.
- [23:26]
Dan Savage
As pals of Mike, alums of Survivor and devoted fans of the White Lotus. Both Angelina and Alec can easily spot the parallels between these two shows.
- [23:35]
Alec Merlino
It's the little quirks that make people.
- [23:38]
Mike White
Who they are, right?
- [23:39]
Alec Merlino
It's like the big personalities. It's like people being funny and being people, but also this weird competition and how do I get up on someone else and how do I win? Right? They're both about winning.
- [23:54]
Evan Ross Katz
I remember one time he laughed. He goes, the more I watch the White Lotus, the more I realize it's exactly like Survivor. Like, if you think about classic Survivor, it's like, always in between parts, they cut to the B roll of, like, the shark. And then, like, in the White Lotus, they cut to B roll of just like this, like, ominous, like, ocean. You're like, oh, what are they setting up? And then, like, Angelina said, like, is there a winner? But, like, in the White Lotus, there's always someone.
- [24:17]
Dan Savage
Someone who dies. I also asked Mike about the White Lotus Survivor parallels, which many of us superfans were quick to spot, and he had a pretty good response.
- [24:27]
Mike White
It's a Survivor ripoff. It's a fictional Survivor ripoff. What's funny is that Chuck and Buck came out the summer of 2000. So it came into the theaters, like, end of June 2000, which is exactly when Survivor premiered. And I remember watching Survivor in the same place where I was when I was know, doing the press stuff for Chuck and Buck and seeing that first cast and the types of people that were represented in that show. You know, now we're so saturated with reality television, you don't realize how radical it seemed to see some of the dynamics that were going on in that show and the people and how they talked and how they weren't very likable, but they were. How. How it shape shifted in this kind of way where like one minute you see someone this way and then they just were like real people, you know what I mean? Which they were obviously, but also kind of like characters. There was something about that was just like, this is new. This feels new. And I think as far as storytelling and what I hope White Lotus is, is something that feels alive and lively and not predetermined. And the characters shift like that. It feels credible but also unexpected in that way that life is. And they reveal themselves in different ways. And each thing you think, oh, maybe this is gonna happen. And then it's slightly different. But when you step back, it feels inevitable or it feels like it's built to something that was kind of designed, but at the same time within it, the storytelling feels. Yeah. Lively and not canned. There's definitely this feeling of suspense, but just like in Survivor, really, a lot of the times it's just people sitting around talking by the fire, but you have this sense of dread that something is gonna happen.
- [26:20]
Dan Savage
As Mike's Survivor episodes were airing week by week, there was one oust that caused quite a stir among fans when Mike went after Survivor favorite Christian, ultimately blindsiding him and getting him eliminated from the game. After the flack Mike got following Chuck and Buck, it was like bad deja vu.
- [26:37]
Mike White
I remember when Survivor came out, you know, I voted out Christian, and there was a week where all the Survivors were like, are you okay? Because online I was getting so much shit for, like being this rich guy who's destroying the financial dreams of everybody's favorite, latest Survivor character. And I was like, you know what? I've been through this before. You know, you just gotta ride it out. You know, today I'm the villain. In a couple months, maybe I'll be seen in a different way. Having been in the public eye and whatever little way that I have for as long as I have, you have to take some hits if you want to take some wins too.
- [27:11]
Dan Savage
When I interviewed Mike, he was in the midst of editing the final episode of season three. He'd literally just been at the editing suite when we logged on. He said he'd been working nearly non stop and that he was burnt out. And so as we talked through his trajectory, feelings started to bubble up.
- [27:26]
Mike White
The first season was tapping into a lot. Lot of that feeling that was going on in the cultural conversation in general about privilege and entitlement. And so I think there's a part of me that is working out my own material reality changing. You know, my dad was. He didn't believe that Christians should own homes. He thought to be a servant of Christ, you should walk with the poor. And then I went to this school where there was a lot of rich kids and their rich families and I would go to their houses. So I was always kind of fascinated by rich people and had, I guess, a fascination that was tinged with I want that or I want to have this and this feeling of judgment or, you know, like, are we all going to hell for, like, being materialistic and not going to church every day and offering up all of our earthly possessions and then now having this conflict, conflicted sense of, am I supposed to be a success? Isn't that what everybody wants? And then also at the same time, now that you're a success, you're no longer a David, you're a Goliath. And it's like, is anyone rooting for you? And should you unload all of these things so that you can be a David again and you can stay true? You can be Jenny from the block or whatever, you know, what does the culture want from me?
- [28:44]
Dan Savage
We know that Mike being a one stop shop has been paying off. I mean, clearly it's given us pure and unadulterated Mike White in every episode of the White Lotus. But the pressure was also taking a toll. He was stressed, he was exhausted. He was, you might say, in Survivor mode.
- [29:00]
Mike White
I feel like I tried to do a career hack, which was make a show where we go somewhere new, where there is no routine, there is no Drive on the 405 to the 10 to work. It's a total life enhancement type of job. At the same time, what I didn't realize is that even that becomes your life. Like, I don't have a life outside of the show. In fact, the show is even more my life because I never go home. One day I'll step back from this and see it as the thing that it is, you know, or have some perspective on it. But right now I'm like, the show has overtaken my life despite. Despite all my efforts to have some management over. Just feels like I failed that. So it's a blessing, but it's a little crazy making because you just are like, when you put everything into something, you want it to work and you want it to be fulfilling and you want it to fulfill all these parts of your life. And the truth is, what I really need to do is build out parts of my life outside of the show. But I just. It's just kind of like this thing. It just sucks up everything.
- [30:07]
Dan Savage
It was startling to hear Mike so overwhelmed. But as he spoke, I couldn't stop thinking about how even amid the stress, he curated such a joyful experience for each and every one of his collaborators. And I didn't just think that. I'd been told it.
- [30:23]
Abercrombie and Fitch
He makes you feel completely safe while also creating a space for you to explore.
- [30:31]
Meredith Tucker
He's not precious at all. Like I would say. His style is very laid back, fun, like a party atmosphere. Like, yay, let's just shoot.
- [30:39]
David Bernad
I literally jumped on him and I was crying and I said, mike, I love you. I love you, Mike Yotiamo, I love you, Mike.
- [30:46]
Mike White
I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was just a student of Mike.
- [30:50]
David Bernad
Like, I'm not afraid to admit. Like, I nerded out quite a bit and I would sit in village and.
- [30:53]
Mike White
Just watch him work. I remember sitting at a dinner table and I pulled, pointed to everyone and I said, steve Zahn, this is a role of a lifetime. Connie Britton, this is a role of a lifetime. He changed all our lives.
- [31:08]
Dan Savage
I wanted to express to Mike what he meant to these people, to give him some of that perspective he was perhaps lacking. I gave it my best shot. I have to tell you, Mike, actors don't often talk about their experiences working on shows with as high of regard as they do when it comes to not just the White Lotus, just working with you in general. People really seem to like working with you. Not just the writing, not just the characters that you create. They like working with you, the vibe that you create on set, being around you. I don't think that that's common.
- [31:47]
Mike White
That's nice to hear. Like right now, honestly, just because I like, I'm so. I'm so stressed about coming through for all these people. I'm somebody who believes as an artist that of course if it sucks, then none of it is worth it. But at the same time, I also believe it can't always just be about the destination. You have to be there. Choosing cool places and cultures that I'm excited about. I have to do it from a place of enthusiasm and without being cheesy love. And that's how. How I'm going to get what I need to get. I can transform this. I can do this. So that's. That's a. That's something that I feel like is. It's important to me as far as my way of approaching this because like I learned very early on, if it's all about results, you're never going to be happy. Because every once in a while you just get the wave and you ride the wave. But sometimes you're out in the water and you're splashing around and you have to enjoy that part of it too, because that's really most of your life is just waiting for the wave.
- [33:03]
Dan Savage
And that's it for the White Lotus Look Back Podcast. I have so enjoyed riding this wave with you all and I can't wait to watch and talk and meme out season three with all of you. I don't have any spoilers, but I did hear that someone dies the White Lotus Podcast is a production of HBO and Campside Media. This episode was hosted by me, Evan Ross Katz and produced by Natalia Winkelman. Our associate producer is Aaliyah Papes. Fact checking by Gray Lanta at Campside Media. Our executive producer is Josh Dean. Editing and sound design by Ewin Lai Trimuin. Special thanks to Michael Gluckstadt, Alison Cohen Sirocac and Kenya Reyes from the HBO Podcast Team.
- [34:04]
Abercrombie and Fitch
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