Staff at the White Lotus season 3 hotel reveal shocking filming secrets
It had been an ordinary day of filming on The White Lotus season three at the Four Seasons Koh Samui, Thailand, until staff noticed two intruders with bleeding feet approaching the set, climbing over the dangerous rocks dividing the resort from the swathes of jungle. “I saw them coming by chance, with bleeding toes,” remembers resort manager Jasjit ‘JJ’ Assi. “I called security and said ‘who are you?’ They said they’d do anything to be part of the show.”
Weirdos with bleeding feet and paparazzi flying drones over the hotel from boats docked metres from the beach: life changed drastically for JJ and his Four Seasons Koh Samui colleagues when the White Lotus film crew came to town. It was no surprise: the first two seasons became huge stories when they filmed at Four Seasons resorts in Hawaii and Sicily (here’s our review of the Italian hotel). In Thailand, the popularity of the show has already driven a 386 per cent rise in enquiries.
To scout the location for the third season, White Lotus creator Mike White spent a year trawling around posh hotels in India and northern Thailand. He wasn’t looking for any old swanky five-star resort: he was scouring for somewhere truly substantial from which to base his show, which satirises its cast of brattish, hot-headed hotel guests. It had to be right: nearly 10 million viewers obsessed over season two. At the end of his research year, White rocked up at the Four Seasons Koh Samui. “I was ready with my marketing spiel,” says JJ. “He came in and stood there quietly for 10 seconds. Then he said: ‘This is it. This is it.’ Koh Samui was the last destination. He must have seen 30 resorts in Thailand by that time.”
