Plaza found cynical character on ‘White Lotus’ sympathetic
In the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” Aubrey Plaza plays Harper Spiller, a lawyer with a penchant for sarcasm who is vacationing in Italy with her husband and his friends. She’d rather read Valeria Luiselli’s “Lost Children Archive” than talk about “Ted Lasso.” And she’d rather not associate with people who don’t follow the news.
Plaza is paired with Will Sharpe, who plays her husband, Ethan — newly wealthy after selling his tech company — as well as Theo James, as Ethan’s old college friend Cameron, and Meghann Fahy as his cheerful wife, Daphne.
Plaza, 38, brings an all-too-relatable cynicism to the judgmental, pragmatic Harper, which will come as no surprise to those familiar with the cutting deadpan that defined Plaza’s breakout role as intern-turnedassistant April Ludgate in “Parks and Recreation.”
This interview with Plaza has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: How did “White Lotus” find its way to you? A:
My entryway, I think, was very different than some other people’s because (creator) Mike (White) and I had a relationship before. We’ve been friends for a long time. We were going to do a movie together — something that we had been developing for a couple years — and we were supposed to shoot it right when the pandemic hit. And then the movie fell apart because of the pandemic, and he kind of switched gears to “The White Lotus.” So, when season two came around, he called me very, very early on and just said,
“Don’t take a job in the winter because I’m going to write you in the show.”
Q: What was your first impression of Harper and her penchant for cynicism when you read the script? A:
I found her very sympathetic. I really relate to her in a lot of ways. Because you know early on that she’s not really from this world of the ultra, ultra rich, even though she’s a little bit uptight and closed off, in the beginning anyway, you kind of feel for her. She’s our way into that world, in some ways, and all the other characters are slightly less aware. … My fear in the beginning was, I don’t want her to come off as just a Debbie Downer . ... I think of it as, you’re catching someone in a moment where they’re not that happy. And her marriage isn’t going that great. But they just happen to be in the most beautiful place in the world. And that happens. That’s life.
Q: How do you view the dynamic between Harper and Ethan? A:
I think a lot of married couples can relate to the peaks and valleys of a marriage. You’re kind of catching them in a dip. They’re in a rut. I totally relate to that. … I haven’t been married that long, actually, but we’ve been
together in a relationship for a long time. I’ve had a lot of long-term relationships. So I understand feeling like you’re trying to find your way, especially when you’re confronted with another couple who seems to have it all. It’s hard not to compare yourself to them. Every couple does that; you start to just judge yourself and your relationship, like, “Am I as happy as them?”
Q: What strikes you about Mike’s writing and the way he infuses it with social commentary? A:
He loves writing things that make the audience a little bit off-kilter — like, people don’t know who the villain is because everybody has these qualities that are slightly despicable. But, then, everybody’s relatable.
Q: Some of your most dynamic scenes are with Will Sharpe, Theo James and Meghann Fahy. Off set, did everyone sort of stay in their group bubble? A:
No, we all were in one big bubble together because we were all living together. We all became close. That was the fun part of it, too, that I became really close with people I had no lines of dialogue with. We were all in some kind of weird, bizarro acting camp or whatever.