The White Lotus star Leslie Bibb has revealed that one of her improvised lines made it into the season 3 finale. Bibb played Kate Bohr in the anthology series, one of the trio of American friends known as the “Blonde Blob.”
The three long term friends spent much of the season arguing and making digs at each other. The finale episode saw the girls make up after having a blow up. Carrie Coon's character finally opened up to her friends about her insecurities.
After Bibb admitted to Bustle that she couldn’t bring herself to watch the HBO finale herself, she asked the journalist, “Is there something where we all say ‘I love you’ to each other?” When the outlet confirmed to the actress that this scene made the final cut, Leslie revealed that it wasn’t in the script. She even joked that the "I love you" improvisation "annoyed" creator Mike White.
“There’s a weird thing that happens with this show where you just feel very connected. Art is imitating life. I just felt like there was no acting in that moment,” the Iron Man actress explained. She said the moment came about because her and her co-stars Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan were so present that they forgot about being on camera and were simply bonding.
Leslie Bibb wishes this scene of The White Lotus made the final cut
While this moment of improvised emotion made the cut, there are some scenes which did not. Leslie Bibb also explained to Bustle about an “insane” scene which wound up on the cutting room floor.
The actress revealed that a deleted scene involving her character having a nightmare full of cliches about Thailand was absent from the edit. White had written dream scenes for numerous characters and they all couldn't make the cut.
"Kate had this insane dream sequence with the ladyboys and ping-pong and everything was glowing,” she recalled. She admitted that there was no room for this The Shining-like moment, which also saw Valentin on a cross floating in the water. "It’s so metaphorical, like everything she’s been talking about is swirling, and it feels sacrificial."
Mike White admitted numerous scenes from the most recent series of The White Lotus were cut for time. “There’s a lot of stuff that ended up being cut. Not because it wasn’t cool, I just needed to be hard on the material,” he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. The creator and reality TV star explained that some episodes were nearly two hours long and HBO forced him to reshape the series.
Another beloved scene from this season of The White Lotus is between Aimee Lou Wood’s character, Chelsea, and her new friend Chloe (played by Charlotte LeBon). Wood claims Chloe complimenting Chelsea’s teeth was not in the script.
“Charlotte [Le Bon, playing a model] improvised that, because she was obsessed with my teeth. When she walks in and goes, ‘I love your teeth,' I didn’t know she was gonna say that. Which does happen to me a lot in life.” This explains Chelsea’s genuine joy and surprise at being complimented. Wood added that the creator approved of this improvisation and declared on set that he loved it.
White has always spoken about encouraging his cast to improvise their lines and create a natural performance. He has also been known to make lot of last-minute changes to the show’s script. Several iconic one-liners from past series have been improvised – including hotel manager Valentina’s comparing Jennifer Coolidge’s character to Peppa Pig.