The White Lotus creator Mike White was adamant that he didn’t want the K-pop star involved with the show as she was too famous and even had another actress lined up for the part
The White Lotus fans almost missed out on seeing Blackpink’s Lisa in season three of the HBO show.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter released on Wednesday (April 4), the show’s creator, Mike White, shared that he initially didn’t want to cast Lisa in his show.
He said: “I did not know who Lisa or Blackpink was. All I knew was that there was a Blackpink girl in ‘The Idol,’ and I was like, ‘We’re not doing that,” in reference to Lisa’s Blackpink bandmate Jennie Kim, who was in the 2023 HBO series.
Mike added: “Then I found out that there might be security issues, and I was just like, ‘No.’ They were like, ‘She’ll audition’.”
Show producer David Bernad shared that the team met up with Lisa despite already having another actress in mind for the part.
David said: “We had her come meet us in Phuket at a secret location, and at that point, we’d already met with actresses in Bangkok and had someone we were really interested in. But Lisa was so humble, and she’d worked so hard on her performance. This was someone fighting for this part.”
White admitted Lisa’s audition was “amazing” but he was adamant that he “still didn’t want to cast her” because of her fame.
He added: “I’m just used to not having so much attention; we don’t need it. But I wanted to be respectful to Thailand. She’s like Taylor Swift meets Princess Diana there.”
Blackpink is a South Korean girl band which consists of four members — Jennie, Rosé, Lisa, and Jisoo.
Since their debut in 2016, the group has soared to global fame and even headlined at Coachella in 2023.
Lisa spoke about her role to The Hollywood Reporter: “I’ve been performing for a long time, and this opportunity came right when I was trying to find a new challenge. They sent over the script, and I sent a tape back.”
The singer turned actress also shared that she had taken up lessons to hone her screen skills before she flew to Thailand to meet with the show’s creators.
She also confessed to worrying about the role and said: “I was so nervous. I brought my mom.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
