Sawt Falasteen - 'My own Apocalypse Now': 'White Lotus' returns with steamy Thailand romp

After visits to Hawaii and Sicily, season three of the smash-hit steamy satire about well-heeled and badly-behaved hotel guests takes place on the tropical island of Koh Samui.

The cast and crew spent six months, primarily at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, which served as the show's main setting and the actors' real-life hotel.

According to creator Mike White, it was the hardest season yet, not just due to the expanding number of characters and episodes (eight).

"Thailand was a beautiful place to shoot, but it also had a lot of challenges," White told a press conference Monday.

"There were days I was like, 'maybe I'll just die today, I don't know!' So I'm proud that I got through it."

The shoot had to contend with sweltering temperatures, outbreaks of dengue fever and food poisoning, and wildlife including giant monitor lizards, snakes and tarantulas, according to a recent Guardian article.

Actors described a "claustrophobic" atmosphere in which "tensions and difficulties" and "off-screen drama" were rife -- all fueled by the hotel's open-bar policy.

Actor Walton Goggins, who plays a surly tourist with a young girlfriend (Aimee Lee Wood) and a mysterious vendetta, described the experience as like being "in my own 'Apocalypse Now.'"

'It was a reckoning... spirituality, life and death, and 18 really talented actors in front of the camera that Mike assembled, going through an existential crisis... sequestered in a five-star resort."

Leslie Bibb, playing one of a trio of female friends trying to rekindle the closeness of their younger days, described the shoot as "hot-ass, haunting chaos."

"It literally was hot... but also the relationships are hot and complicated. It's sexy and hot, and it just feels like you're on the pulse of something."

- K-pop and Arnie -

As usual, the first episode begins with the arrival of disparate groups of guests at a luxury resort for a week's stay.

We know from the first scene that tensions will soar, relationships will fray -- and someone will end up dead.

This time, the tourists are staying at a spa resort promoting meditation, therapy and self-care, next door to a Buddhist monastery.

White, the show's creator, said he was fascinated by "people wanting to be their ideal self and to be more than the base animal creatures that they can be -- and then there's this antic force that keeps pulling them back out to 'monkey land.'"

Those primal instincts are signposted with frequent shots of lascivious monkeys, ominously lurking in the rainforest trees that surround the luxury hotel.

Season two brought back the first run's beloved ditzy millionaire Tanya McQuoid, memorably played by Emmy-winner Jennifer Coolidge.

The third instalment brings back Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), Tanya's long-suffering spa manager from the White Lotus Hotel in Hawaii.

Belinda pays a visit to her fictional luxury chain's Thai sister hotel, where staff include Mook, a "health mentor" for guests, played by K-pop sensation Lalisa "Lisa" Manobal.

A huge global star with her performances in girl group Blackpink, Manobal left her native Thailand for Korea at age 14, and said the lengthy "White Lotus" shoot provided a rare chance to "reconnect" with her family and homeland.

Other new cast members include Michelle Monaghan, of the "Mission: Impossible" films, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of legendary action star Arnold.

The younger Schwarzenegger has several nude scenes, and admitted he was nervous about the prospect of watching the show with his famous family.

"They don't know anything," he said. "There'll be some times that I take some bathroom breaks... or maybe I won't watch that episode."

"The White Lotus" season three debuts on HBO this Sunday.

S.AbuJamous--SF-PST