In its two seasons, the anthology series has starred a rotating stellar cast that includes the likes of Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Sydney Sweeney, Lukas Gage, Aubrey Plaza — and Haley Lu Richardson.
In the second season, Haley plays a character named Portia, a privileged Gen Z’er, who initially spends time complaining about her life’s purpose while on vacation in picturesque Italy, working as a personal assistant to Jennifer Coolidge’s character, Tanya.
Portia gets sucked into a sinister and underlying criminal world of the rich — a world full of conniving “old money” grifters. She is then manipulated, kidnapped, dumped by her love interest, and sent back to the States, after which she remains largely unbothered and unchanged, because of, yes, her privilege.
On Variety’s Just for Variety podcast, Haley spoke up about the “insufferable” character she played on the show and how she had been dubbed as the show’s “villain” across social media.
“I just hadn’t been in that situation before, so I did get sad,” Haley said of the experience working on a show as visible as The White Lotus. “There was probably the first couple of episodes where I was seeing some things and reactions to things with Portia and me that I was taking personally or I wasn’t fully sure how to take it or how to process it.”
“The one thing that I thought was actually kind of unfair and warped was the people who were saying that she was awful or she was the real villain of the season,” shared Haley.
“There’s no way that you can look at that young woman and be like, ‘She is the most awful one on this show.’ People who think that should go to therapy,” she said.
“The whole point of the show is to get people talking,” Haley added on Collider’s Ladies Night. “She’s a fictional character, and all these people are having opinions.” She continued, “But I really [wished] I had a Twitter so I could be a part of these conversations. Like, there were so many Tweets where I was like, ‘Oh my god,’ I just want to freaking respond!”
I gotta say, there were way worse villains in the season for Portia to be labeled the main villain. 🤷♀️
