Let Meghann Fahy and Will Sharpe Explain the ‘Secret Ingredient’ of ‘The White Lotus’
Everyone has a theory about that moment between Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and Ethan (Will Sharpe) in the finale of “The White Lotus,” when a reeling Ethan tells Daphne he thinks their respective spouses have secretly hooked up.
As fans of the HBO drama are well aware, Daphne then invites Ethan to accompany her to a remote island to …have sex? Confess all their sins? Just go cave exploring!? The ambiguity became a water cooler hot topic immediately after airing, but two people who didn’t overanalyze the moment were Fahy and Sharpe themselves.
“I was sort of surprised by how much I get asked about that moment [by fans] and the specifics of what happened, because I don’t think we talked about it at all,” Sharpe said in conversation with Fahy as part of IndieWire’s Awards Spotlight. “Something happened, I remember us arriving on the location, rehearsing it on the day, the feeling of it and the weird mysticism of it, and us getting as far as ‘Well something happened. Definitely.’ But not what exactly happened. But that’s what I love about how this series ends for us four: There is a lot of ambiguity.”
“I always saw that scene for Daphne as a moment of compassion,” Fahy said. “It’s strange compassion but I’ve never thought that she was motivated by spite or malice. … She saw a sad, broken man and wanted to do something to help. So she takes him to an island and does god knows what!”
The two actors had been around each other all season as part of a very WTF foursome, but the charged beach moment was the first time the two shared a scene one on one – and it was a doozy. After Sharpe drops that emotional bombshell, Fahy must go through all five grief stages in the span of a few long seconds.
“I just remember thinking that Will is the best listener of all time, because I’m talking for a while,” Fahy noted with a laugh. “‘… I’m not huge on rehearsal, or at least I didn’t feel like I was for ‘White Lotus.’ And that’s probably partially to do with the way Mike (White) shoots things but I just always felt that whatever naturally came to be when we were doing it would be the best thing.”
Sharpe and Fahy noted that writer/director Mike White was absolutely a partner to them, but the duo laughed over their shared suspicions about how he manages to get such universally great performances.
“I find it very hard to communicate what it’s like to work with Mike because he’s such a particular fish,” Sharpe said. “He presents as super laidback and it all just happens by mistake, but he’s also secretly a master of precision and detail and is in full control. … In a good way. You feel like you’re in really safe hands.”
“I completely agree,” Fahy said. “It does feel like this perfect marriage of ‘you can do whatever you want’ but also knowing without a doubt that he knows exactly what he wants and he’s going to figure out how to get it.”
“He doesn’t like to overtalk it with anyone,” Sharpe continued. “Sometimes that can give a slight feeling of tension and everybody isn’t one hundred percent sure of where they are. He knows where this is going but you’re all collectively trying to work it out. I feel like that’s part of the secret ingredient of ‘The White Lotus,’ this feeling of tension. Everybody is slightly on edge the whole time … It bring something out in us. I don’t know how he does it exactly, but it was interesting.”
Check out Fahy and Sharpe’s full Awards Spotlight chat in the video above.