Michelle Monaghan on The White Lotus season 3: 'the number of NDAs that I've signed for this show is crazy'

For the past year, Michelle Monaghan has not been able to reveal a thing about her latest acting job. “The number of NDAs and things that I've signed. Even my family has no idea what's in store for the show,” she says. “It was critical that we kept everything a secret. They’re like, ‘Just tell us a little something!’ And I won't even tell them my name." Really? “Nothing, not a thing.”.

It’s not a surprise she’s been so cagey. For Monaghan, along with her castmates, is about to become part of the most talked-about show in the world when The White Lotus’ third season airs next week. The brainchild of creator Mike White, the show (which takes place each year in a different location, with an entirely new cast) takes us into the super-luxe world of the White Lotus hotel chain. Packed with rich guests and staffed by harried, anxious workers, its biting wit and unsparing gaze (as well as a standout performance from Jennifer Coolidge) has helped make it into a mega-hit.

This year, the cast includes Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Aimee Lou Wood and even a K-pop star in the form of Blackpink’s Lisa. And with big boots to fill, what did go down on set was a lot of secrecy – which meant a lot of being shuttled to and from the various filming locations in the show’s new location of Thailand. “When we got there, I didn't quite understand that as a production we would be moving amongst various hotels,. So we would shoot dinner scenes at one hotel, we would shoot breakfast scenes at another, we would utilize the beach of another hotel,” she says: which means days spent at the Four Seasons, Air BnBs and other luxury hotels. “Sometimes we were sharing the hotels with actual guests.”.

Would the guests be giving them funny looks over the breakfast table? “Yeah, and understandably so!”. Monaghan plays Jaclyn: a Hollywood actress, who has taken her childhood best friends on a “girl’s trip” after a period of growing apart as adults. And if you think that’s a bit on the nose, you’re not wrong. “One of the first things was when I when I read the role and I read the scripts and I found out that she was a Hollywood actress, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm like, how do I how do I interpret this? This is a little close to home.’”.

It is indeed. Monaghan herself has been in the acting game for decades. Born in 1976 in Iowa, she originally trained as a journalist before pivoting to the small screen. She broke through on the TV series Boston Public in 2002 and has since gone onto star in four Mission: Impossible films, True Detective’s first season and even 2024 slasher film MaXXXine. Like her character Jaclyn (who gets stopped multiple times by fans throughout the series), she’s famous – so does she ever get recognised in public?.

“I've never had any really uncomfortable moments, and most often I feel like it's my voice that's recognised and then somebody [is like] ‘Are you…?’” she says. “I can do them – in a split second I can do a once over and I'm like, ‘…the actress from Made of Honor? Yes!’ or the actress from True Detective or Mission Impossible, or whatever it is. It’s very sweet.”. But despite the apparent similarities between her and Jaclyn, there’s still plenty of nuance to mine from the character – especially the relationship with her two friends Laurie and Kate, played by Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb. The trio start out with flattery and compliments, but as we soon learn, not everything is perfect in paradise, especially not when they’re gossiping about each other behind each others’ backs.

“One of the things that I found really fun to get to explore – and what Mike wanted to tap into – was this idea that women are really hard on themselves,” Monaghan says. “And women together can oftentimes be very competitive, compare themselves to one another. We can judge ourselves so much.”. Can Monaghan relate? “I think we are kind of socially conditioned to be that way. We live in a patriarchy, right?” she says.

“We have limited opportunities, and we all want to make the most of them and I think inevitably, sometimes that competitiveness can absolutely get the best of us.”. That the characters seem so relatable is a credit to White. A former actor turned director and writer, he has penned all the scripts, directed every episode and produced every season. Unsurprisingly, Monaghan is a fan: “for about 20 years. I remember first seeing Chuck & Buck and I was blown away at his performance. And then I met him randomly at a dinner party well over 15 years ago,” she says. “I remember leaving going, ‘Oh my god, that guy was so rad.’”.

While Monaghan saved most of the fangirling for after she got the role of Jaclyn, it’s clear that White is a titanic presence on set, too. “I think honestly Mike is the biggest joker,” she says. “I think there's nothing more exciting than to watch him see the characters come to life. He gets so excited. You can see the joy on his face. He laughs out loud and he high-fives. He directs every single scene, he writes every single scene, he helps edit every single scene. He's an absolute unicorn.”.