The White Lotus Season 3: Natasha Rothwell returns as Belinda ...

Fans of The White Lotus will remember Belinda Lindsey, the kind-hearted spa manager from Season 1 who got caught up in Tanya McQuoid’s (Jennifer Coolidge) messy orbit. Now, Natasha Rothwell is reprising her role in Season 3. This time, Belinda finds herself in Thailand, where she’s on a professional exchange program—but will she finally get the success (and peace) she deserves?

We sat down with Natasha to talk about her return to The White Lotus, what Belinda has been up to, and whether this season will be even darker than the last. Plus, she spills on behind-the-scenes spa perks and that steamy massage scene.

Did you ever expect to come back into this show and how did you feel about it?

No, not at all. It was always meant to be a limited series and so it was just super surprising and I’m so grateful.

How did it happen? Did Mike (series creator, writer and director, Mike White) ring you?

I begged him! No, I’m kidding. He was shooting in Sicily for season two, and we are dear friends, and he let me know he was going to be in town for the Emmys before going back to finish the Sicily season. He wanted to meet up for dinner, and he said, ‘I’m thinking about what season three might be. Would you want to come back?’ And I was just like, ‘Duh? Absolutely.’ And then there was quite a bit of time between that and me starting on it because he was still finishing season two and I wasn’t holding my breath. It’s Hollywood, and things go away. So then when he circled back again, I knew he was serious, and I was so excited.

What did you think when you read the script? Has the character changed very much?

Not in discernible ways. I think internally, there’s this big shift in terms of her worldview. I binge-read the scripts and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It’s just action-packed. You get to see Belinda go on this amazing journey this season.

She was quite let down by Tanya in the first season when her promised funding for Belinda’s dream of her own wellness centre failed to materialize. Is she over that now?

I think she’s over it in… she can’t really change anything. But I think she feels that it’s hard to trust people.

I feel an element of sadness about Belinda, maybe aspirations she hasn’t quite reached. What’s your take on her?

She’s a woman with a lot of dreams and she’s constantly working to try to bridge the distance between who she is and who she wants to be. And when you’ve not quite done that, it can be kind of defeating, especially when she was so close the previous season. So I think that we’ll see Thailand revive her and bring her joy. I think that Belinda being in this new environment is allowing her to see herself differently and that’s a beautiful thing. She’s a single mum and I think she’s able to kind of shed that identity on vacation. Like many of us, when we go on holiday, we are auditioning a version of ourselves, trying to figure out what fits and seeing if there’s any of that you can bring back home. So we’ll see her sort of spread her wings a little bit.

There’s a hint of that with her masseur counterpart at the hotel. There’s a lovely scene where you both give each other your signature massage and she is impressed when he is looking buff in just his underwear.

I mean, it’s tough baby but someone’s got to do it!

Was that a fun scene to do?

Dom (Hetrakul), who’s my scene partner there is just so lovely, and he’s very famous in Thailand. And so it was just really cool to see him… in all his glory!

You filmed in a few resorts, were you able to try some of the spa treatments?

I mean, I had to for work, you know? I have to learn the craft if I’m going to do it properly! I definitely enjoyed the spa situation over there and learned a lot from having technicians that were actually from the resort present to make sure that we were doing the right things on camera.

This season seems to be a bit darker than previous ones.

I think there’s darkness in all of it because in order to show the full spectrum of humanity that Mike does in his work, you have to show the light and the dark. And especially because spirituality is such a huge theme this season there’s a real need to pay attention to what drives us to those spiritual salves. We see perhaps a little bit more darkness but I don’t think there’s anything evil per se. It’s just showing perhaps more of the underbelly of what we’ve seen across the seasons.

Did you get the chance to explore Thailand when you were filming there?

Yeah, I did. I think a lot of the other cast members, when they weren’t shooting their storyline, would go back home, but I stayed there the whole time because I couldn’t do that time difference. And so on my off days, I was able to explore a little bit more. It’s so hot there so I tried my best to endure some of the sightseeing during the day. But it kind of encouraged a nocturnal experience because during the day it can be pretty impressive with the heat and at night, it was still hot, but marginally better. So, being able to explore different restaurants and the nightlife was really great.

What’s Mike like to work with?

He’s incredible. Everything that I experienced in season one was pretty exciting. Because as someone who’s also a writer and a director and an actor, to be able to watch someone who’s also a multi-hyphenate create and work… I’m just in awe about how he moves. He has such a vision of what he’s looking for and can sometimes be editing in real-time, knowing what is needed and moving quickly. He’s so collaborative. It’s one of my favourite things about him to be able to talk through scenes and pitch him ideas and he’s so receptive.

Were there times when you suggested saying or doing things in a different way than was in the script?

He and I have a unique relationship. Season one was really important to me playing a character that’s in a very homogenous white environment. Being a woman of colour, I wanted to make sure that the character wasn’t feeling cliche or a trope, and so I asked to work with him on the scenes and we sat down and literally went page by page through all of Belinda’s lines for a season and I was pitching dialogue to really put it in my mouth and make it sound grounded and authentic. And we did the same process this time. I’m so grateful to him, because we were able to work on that prior to being on set. But even then, he would encourage us if we wanted to add anything. But we got through a lot of that workshopping before the cameras were up.

Does he give you a lot of backstory for your character?

No, he’s not that prescriptive, which I like, because I get to do that work myself and really sort of discover and think through what I think and believe her story to be. And for him, if that inner work that I do is delivering what he needs, he’s satiated. He doesn’t feel like he has to be privy to how she came to be a single mom and all of that. But I need that to know how to move through the space, especially this season, because my son, played by the amazing Nicholas Duvernay is a part of this season, and so unlike the first season where it’s just a phone call with her son, we played scenes together and so really had to explore our relationship.

Stream The White Lotus now on Binge, live and on demand with a 7-day free trial. Subscribe here. Season three is set to premiere on February 17, 2025.