The White Lotus behind-the-scenes drama continues amid news of a surprising offscreen exit.
Composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer candidly addressed his decision not to return for season 4 after multiple creative differences with creator Mike White. Tapia de Veer, 51, told The New York Times on Wednesday, April 2, that arguments over the season 3 theme music — especially backlash over the lack of iconic “ooh-loo-loo-loos” in the intro — led to his departure.
“I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give [the fans] the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” Tapia de Veer told the outlet. “He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that.”
White, 54, who didn’t offer a statement to The New York Times about the situation, allegedly wanted the soundtrack to be more background music. “A song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe,” Tapia de Veer claimed. “I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything.”
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Tapia de Veer told The White Lotus team months ago that he wasn’t coming back.
“I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever,” he continued. “Except I told the whole editorial team and music editor and producer and all that, but I didn’t think that they were going to tell him. At some point he heard about that.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tapia de Veer joked that his professional relationship with White reminded him of the 1978 French film La Cage aux Folles, adding, “You know how there’s Albin, which is like the star, and there’s Renato, who is the producer who is always taking care that Albin doesn’t lose his mind about something.”
He continued: “Because Albin is the diva and Renato is the guy who is trying to make everything work. To me, the show felt very much like that.”
The revelation about White and Tapia de Veer’s falling out comes after season 3 star Jason Isaacs teased how friendships “were lost” between cast members.
“It was like a cross between summer camp and Lord of the Flies but in a gilded cage,” Isaacs, 61, shared in an interview with Vulture published on Monday, March 31. “It wasn’t a holiday. Some people got very close, there were friendships that were made and friendships that were lost.”
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The actor, who plays Timothy Ratliff, didn’t name who was no longer on good terms.
“All the things you would imagine with a group of people unanchored from their home lives on the other side of the world, in the intense pressure cooker of the working environment with eye-melting heat and insects and late nights,” he shared. “They say in the show, ‘What happens in Thailand stays in Thailand.’ But there’s an off screen White Lotus as well, with fewer deaths but just as much drama.”
The outlet offered Isaacs the chance to elaborate, which he laughed off, adding, “Absolutely not. I became very close to some people and less close to others, but we still all had that experience together and there’s a certain level of discretion required.”
New episodes of The White Lotus air on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
