Mike White thought it would be funny to have Aubrey Plaza play a "normie"

According to Aubrey Plaza, Mike White didn't want her character to be someone who exhibited "extreme behaviors"

By Hattie Lindert  |  June 13, 2023 | 2:48pm
Aux News Plaza
Mike White thought it would be funny to have Aubrey Plaza play a
Aubrey Plaza and Mike White Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/GA/The Hollywood Reporter

As HBO’s The White Lotus gears up for a highly anticipated third season rumored to be set in Thailand, the internet is already aflutter with discussions about what new insufferable characters will descend upon the titular resort. If anything, The White Lotus alum Aubrey Plaza’s experience on the anthology indicates that creator Mike White absolutely has a plan. As Plaza recalls, White knew that when she joined the series’ universe he wanted her to play a very specific, recognizable kind of character.

“He kind of made a joke, but he said something along the lines of ‘I think it would be really funny if you played a normie,’” Plaza, who plays disillusioned wife Harper Spiller in the series, recalls in a new interview with The Los Angeles Times’ Tim Grierson. “There’s lots to dissect there, but I think what he meant was ‘I’m not going to cast you as a character that has some kind of extreme behaviors.’ I thought, ‘OK, well, nobody’s really a normie, are they?’”

Plaza’s point certainly lands, given Harper’s character arc in season 2 of the HBO favorite. A normie only on the surface, April’s coiffed aesthetic and entrepreneur husband can’t completely hide her penchant for cat-and-mouse mind games. Anyone who can navigate a strange, psychosexual quadrangle on vacation and still make it home with their peace of mind (and partner) doesn’t exactly deserve to be relegated to normie status. Perhaps ultimately, Plaza’s experience will open the floodgates of not-so-normie normies on the small screen (the fact that Plaza was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for the role doesn’t hurt).

 
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