I outlived her!” says Natasha Rothwell, with a magnificent cackle. “I outlived the bitch!” The star of The White Lotus is rejoicing in the knowledge that, three seasons into HBO’s hit eat-the-rich satire, her sweet spa manager Belinda, lives on, while the woman who shattered her dreams, Jennifer Coolidge’s indelibly camp billionaire Tanya, is, well… dead.
A quick recap for those with hazy memories of the sun-soaked show: in season one, set at the lavish White Lotus resort in Hawaii, Tanya brutally dropped Belinda after promising to finance her hopes of opening her own spa. Then, in season two, at the hotel’s Sicilian outpost, Tanya fell to her death from a superyacht. The two incidents were unrelated but, you know, karma. Now, as the drama returns for its third run, Belinda is visiting the White Lotus in Thailand, where she’s taking wellness training – and no, she’s not forgiven Tanya. “I mean, how can she?” asks Rothwell, who has now composed herself. “She was hurt so profoundly.” But the actor will, of course, miss having Coolidge as one of the funniest scene partners of her career. “Jennifer had me biting the inside of my cheek,” she says, remembering how hard it was to stop herself from bursting out laughing mid-scene.
