Carrie Coon on her Character Laurie in The White Lotus
We sat down with Carrie Coon to talk all things The White Lotus as she shared how she shaped her character Laurie and all her layers. A huge component of this lies in the friendship Laurie is revisiting with her two friends played by Michelle Monoghan and Leslie Bibb. She rightfully pointed out that if all three women had arrived on the trip being honest and open with each other, that things could have gone in a very different direction to where they are now.
On the first night at The White Lotus Laurie immediately catches her friends gossiping about her and it begins the gradual unraveling of insecurities. However she did note that Laurie herself also in turn uses gossip as a form of connection and a way of being closer to her friends at different times as well.
Carrie found Laurie to be someone who is brutally honest, sometimes too much so, and someone who also doesn’t hold up the same mirror or reflection on herself. She also spoke to how Laurie is masking a lot of her emotions through her drinking, which was very specifically calibrated so that she often has a drink one the way while still finishing the one she has in hand and that this is a tool of escapism. However it also serves as something which equally fuels some of her emotional responses.
In epsiode 7, Laurie ended up stepping away from the group on her own and whilst she at first found liberation in this, things soon went in the wrong direction for her, leading to a speedy escape out a bedroom window. Carrie did her own stunt work for this and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to do so.
Just two days after wrapping filming in Thailand, she was back on set for The Gilded Age, which requires a vastly different style of performances given the restraint and poise true to the time period of the show.
Watch the full conversation below:
Q&A with Carrie Coon on The White Lotus. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.
An all-star cast head to a resort and unleash their worst, most privileged impulses. The series is a sharp social satire following the exploits of various guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose stay becomes affected by their various dysfunctions. A week in the life of vacationers is unravelled as they relax and rejuvenate in paradise. With each passing day, a darker complexity emerges in these picture-perfect travelers, the hotel's cheerful employees, and the idyllic locale itself.
