The White Lotus star Natasha Rothwell: ‘I’m a recovering people pleaser’

The actor is back as caring spa manager Belinda in the hit satire’s third season. She tells Ellie Harrison about outliving Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya, making and starring in her own comedy, and what happened when she visited Ireland. 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.

The return of The White Lotus is one of the most keenly anticipated TV events of the year. Mike White’s mordant study of luxury resorts is a world where privilege, customer service and, in this show, death collide. It ticks every box for the winter TV schedule. Gorgeous escapism? Oh yes. Obnoxious characters we love to hate? Oodles of them. A compelling central mystery? You bet. The show has mopped up 15 Emmys over its first two seasons, and given us unforgettable performances from stars such as Coolidge, Will Sharpe and Murray Bartlett. Yet among all these infinity pool dwellers, Rothwell has made a splash. And news that she was coming back to the show, which refreshes most of its cast each season, has been met with huge excitement.

In her Emmy-nominated season one performance as Belinda, Rothwell excelled at presenting a veneer of sweetness and professionalism that hid an inner sense of dejection and growing resentment. With her sad smiles and patient breaths, she was heart-piercing as a woman ground down by years of doting on rich white people in the service industry, desperate for her big break. “Belinda was like a shaking can of soda, and at any moment could have popped,” says Rothwell.

I meet the 44-year-old in a London hotel, and she is unlike Belinda in almost every way. Wearing a playful frock with an oversized collar and pussy bow, she is straight-talking and quick to laughter. She seems totally unselfconscious. Yet she hasn’t always been this way, she admits. “Playing Belinda reminds me of my early days, of performing for other people, and sacrificing my opinions because I didn’t want to rock the boat. Like, God forbid I would advocate for myself, because other people’s needs are more important than mine!”.

She jokes that, as a “recovering people pleaser”, stepping back into Belinda’s sandals was “re-traumatising”. “I was like, oh, I remember what this is like, just having to bite my tongue and swallow blood and not stand up for myself.” But, she promises, we’ll see Belinda holding her ground more in season three. “Like most people on vacation, she gets to audition a version of herself, and she’s auditioning some courage.”.

Apart from that, Rothwell can’t reveal much else, except that this season will have a focus on Eastern religion and spirituality, exploring the way it’s fetishised and commodified in the West. Rothwell, who was born in Wichita, Kansas, but now lives in Los Angeles, has seen this first hand. “In LA, how close you can get to your best self is equal to how many crystals you have or silent retreats you go on,” she says, eyes rolling. “And there’s a lot of co-opting of culture that happens, where you feel like, ‘Oh, I’m using the good parts of this, but ignoring the generational trauma that resulted in it.’ And I think this season makes us question our motives for travelling to certain countries. Are you taking more than you’re giving? Are you there to experience it or post about it on Instagram?”.

Rothwell is a keen traveller herself. Growing up, her family were constantly on the move, given her dad’s job in the US Air Force. She has previously joked that, because she got her period in Maryland, in some ways that state feels like home. But Philadelphia was really the anchor for her and her two siblings. “I moved around a ton, and that spirit of travel stayed with me,” she says. “I lived in Tokyo for a year and have always loved to travel abroad solo.”.