Woody Harrelson is explaining why he left a key role in The White Lotus Season 3 after being cast in the hit HBO/Max series — and it had nothing to do with his salary.
The White Lotus, of course, is the smash hit dark satire that concludes its third season Sunday night with the reveal of which character in the ensemble cast will die and who is responsible for the murder.
This year’s vast ensemble includes Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Parkey Posey, Natasha Rothwell, Aimee Lou Wood, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Lalisa Manobal, Tayme Thapthimthong, Jon Gries, Sam Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook, Charlotte Le Bon and Walton Goggins.
Goggins plays Rick, who travels with his girlfriend Chelsea (Wood) to the Thailand location of The White Lotus luxury resort. Rick’s motivation, however, is not to rest and relax at the posh spread, but to travel to Bangkok to confront Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn) for murdering his father decades ago.
To get to Jim, Rick constructs a ruse to convince the resort’s owner, Sritala Hollinger (Patravadi Mejudhon), that he’s a movie producer and he’d like to meet with her and her husband at their Bangkok estate.
The ruse also involves Rick’s old pal, Frank (Sam Rockwell) — who shockingly details his battle with substance and sex addiction to Rick in an earlier episode — who plays the part of the director of his film.
Harrelson was originally cast as Frank but left the show and was replaced by Rockwell. On Friday, Harrelson’s representatives told The Daily Beast that reason he left the show was “not about money.”
Speculation about Harrelson’s alleged pay dispute originated with an oral history article published in The Hollywood Reporter on April 2. In the THR piece, The White Lotus producer David Bernad said all of the cast members are paid the same amount and the salary is not negotiable.
Citing two sources, however, THR claimed Harrelson — who was originally considered to play Rick — “went all the way to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to see if his salary could be negotiated.” Harrelson and his reps told The Daily Beast that he eventually signed on to play Frank, but he had to drop out due to scheduling issues.
“I was set to do White Lotus and very excited,” Harrelson said in a statement in The Daily Beast. “Unfortunately, their production schedule shifted, and conflicted with a pre-planned family vacation, forcing me to make an extremely hard decision.”
THR updated its report with Harrelson’s statement on April 4, the same day he sent the statement to The Daily Beast.
Woody Harrelson Praised Sam Rockwell For His Performance In ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3
Sam Rockwell has been widely praised for his turn as Frank in The White Lotus Season 3, and among the people lauding his performance is Woody Harrelson.
Harrelson even suggested there had to have been a reason for him to pass on the role and have it land with Rockwell.
“Things must be meant to be though because I couldn’t have done as fantastic a job as Sam, who is killing it,” Harrelson said in the statement to The Daily Beast.
Harrelson and Rockwell previously worked together in the Best Picture Oscar-nominated dark crime comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which was released in 2017. Rockwell’s turn in the film earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
The season finale for The White Lotus Season 3 airs on HBO Sunday night and streams on Max.
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