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‘The White Lotus’ Season 4 Officially Lets One Star Go Completely Off-Script [Exclusive]

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HBO has had a wildly successful year so far in 2026, with shows like The Pitt and DTF St. Louis doing well at the Emmys. HBO has also invested heavily in the fantasy genre with Game of Thrones spin-offs like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon, both of which are set to return in the next two years with new seasons. The platform has become a staple in the last 25 years for being the go-to home of prestige television, which is arguably what it’s best known for. When it comes to shows with a high production value, one of the first to come to mind is The White Lotus, which is written and directed solely by Mike White.

Mike White is hard at work shooting the fourth season of The White Lotus right now, which will be the first in series history to be set in France. Cast members include Chloe Bennet, Sandra Bernhard, Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Max Greenfield, Ben Kingsley, Alexander Ludwig, Chris Messina, and even Heather Graham. Collider’s Perri Nemiroff had the chance to chat with The White Lotus newcomer Heather Graham at Fantastic Fest to promote her new movie, What Happened to Doris, and she asked if there was anything during her experience filming Season 4 that has allowed her to flex her acting muscles. Graham told Collider:

“Well, Mike [White] one day was like, ‘We’ll just make up some stuff.’ And he let me just improv a monologue for, like, 10 minutes in this one scene, and I was like ‘Thank you, Mike.’ I don’t know if it’ll end up in [the final cut], but it was really fun.”











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Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes
Which Coen Brothers Movie Would You Thrive In?
Lebowski · O Brother · Fargo · No Country
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Nobody writes people like the Coen brothers. The decent ones. The talkers. The ones who stopped trying years ago. And the ones who can already see how bad this is going to get. Four films, four completely different ways of handling trouble. Eight questions decide which one you would actually walk out of.

🎳Lebowski(1998)

🎸O Brother(2000)

❄️Fargo(1996)

🪙No Country(2007)

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01

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A bag of money lands in your lap. What happens next?
Every Coen film starts roughly here. It never goes smoothly.




02

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Somebody is being completely unreasonable with you. How does it go?
Coen dialogue is mostly people failing to understand each other.




03

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What is your actual relationship with work?
Everyone in these films is either working far too hard or not at all.




04

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Long drive, bad weather, nobody else on the road. How are you?
There is always a drive in these films. It is never a good drive.




05

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You are offered a shortcut that is not quite legal.
This is the moment where the Coens find out who you really are.




06

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The plan has fallen apart completely. What is your move?
In a Coen film the plan always falls apart. That is the genre.




07

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Which of these sounds most like something you would say?
Nobody writes a line quite like the Coens. Which one is yours?




08

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How does your film end?
Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your movie.




The Verdict Is In
Your Coen Film Is…
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Four films, four completely different ways of handling money, trouble
and other people. This is the one you would survive, why it suits you, and what it would cost you to
be there.


The Big Lebowski · 1998

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The Big Lebowski

You have quietly arranged your life so that very little can get
to you, and a surprising number of people find that infuriating. You would be completely at
home here.

  • The Dude is the only person in the film with no ambition, and the only one who comes out
    the other side undamaged. That is not an accident.
  • You do not chase things. You let situations arrive and you deal with them at your own
    pace, which is a genuine skill however lazy it looks.
  • This is a full crime plot happening around a man who mostly wants his rug back, and that
    is exactly the energy you would bring to it.
  • Everything goes wrong. You abide. The film ends.


O Brother, Where Art Thou? · 2000

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O Brother

You talk your way through life and it works far more often than
it should. Give you a bad situation and an audience and you will find a way out of both at
once.

  • Everett never has a plan that survives contact with reality. He has something better,
    which is the ability to keep talking until a new one turns up.
  • You are the optimist in the group, the one who makes a ridiculous idea sound reasonable
    at two in the morning.
  • This is the warmest film the Coens have made. It is a chase, a comedy and a musical at
    once, and nobody in it is quite beyond saving.
  • You would end up famous entirely by accident, and act like you planned it all along.


Fargo · 1996

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Fargo

You would survive Fargo because you are the only kind of person
who does: patient, decent, and completely unimpressed by anybody trying to be clever.

  • Marge Gunderson solves the whole case by being polite, thorough and unhurried while
    everybody around her panics. That is the entire argument of the film.
  • You do the boring parts of the job, which is precisely why you would notice the thing
    everyone else walked straight past.
  • Fargo is about ordinary greed causing enormous damage, and about one person who simply
    refuses to be corrupted by any of it.
  • You would go home at the end of it, have dinner, and sleep perfectly well.


No Country for Old Men · 2007

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No Country

You do not expect the world to be fair and you stopped being
surprised about it a long time ago. That clear-eyed quality is exactly what this film asks
for.

  • No Country is the Coens at their coldest: a film where being smart, fast and careful
    might still not be anywhere near enough.
  • You plan for the worst, you keep your own counsel, and some part of you is already
    working out the exit.
  • Llewelyn Moss is competent, prepared and resourceful, and the film is honest about
    whether any of that is ever sufficient.
  • You would see it coming. Whether that helps is the one question the film refuses to
    answer.

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‘The White Lotus’ Star Heather Graham Reveals Season 4’s Standout

The White Lotus is an anthology series, and while each season of the show is set in the same world and usually features one, maybe two characters from a past season, it’s a largely new cast bringing a new story to life in a new location. There’s a world where this could make it tough for fans to connect with new characters every season, but Mike White does a stellar job not only writing compelling characters across the board, but finding the perfect actors to bring them to life on-screen.

Nemiroff also asked Heather Graham if there was anything she’s seen so far while filming The White Lotus Season 4 that’s impressed her in particular about any of her co-stars, and while she admits that she hasn’t had a chance to see the performances in the final product, one star did come to mind: “Well, I haven’t really seen everyone’s performances, but I have really come to adore Chris Messina from working on it. He’s a lovely human, and he’s got a really interesting character that he’s playing. He’s a sweetheart, and he’s playing a really interesting character.”

Check out the first three seasons of The White Lotus on HBO Max and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Season 4, as well as Graham’s new movie What Happened to Doris.

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Release Date

2021 – 2024

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Network

HBO

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Showrunner

Mike White

Directors
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Mike White

Writers

Mike White

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