Why White Lotus Creator Mike White Was Surprised at Jon Gries’ Return

Who Was Murdered During ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Finale? All the Details

Gary/Greg continues to live on in the White Lotus universe.

While Jon Gries has portrayed the  character  on all three seasons of the HBO drama—the only actor to do so—he recently revealed that wasn’t always the case.

“It’s never taken lightly. It’s amazing every time,” Jon revealed during a panel with the cast at the White Lotus at Four Seasons, Presented by American Express event April 6.” I can actually say every time, so far, it’s been crazy.”

And even creator Mike White is shocked he keeps bringing Jon’s character back for more.

“In fact, I saw Mike last night,” he continued. “He looked at me, goes, ‘I never thought that I was gonna ever see you again after the first one.’ Is that amazing? Three f–king seasons? I thought it was hilarious. I pinch myself every day.”

Indeed, he has had quite a roller coaster of an arc on the series, following his introduction as Greg, a White Lotus guest who woos Jennifer Coolidge’s aloof heiress Tanya McQuoid in season one, whom he is married to by season two. This season, now going by Gary, he appears to be living the life of luxury with his new girlfriend Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), after inheriting Tayna’s fortune—even with the lingering questions surrounding her death.

Among the few people still asking those questions is Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda, season one’s spa manager now on an exchange at the resort’s Thailand location, though he is ultimately able to bribe her silence with the funds to open her own luxury spa. For Jon, it was a character arc that left him with many with more questions.

“I think season two surprised me more somehow,” he said. “But I guess the enormity of the wealth surprised me. I think that I spent so much time after season two justifying that, ‘He wasn’t there. He didn’t kill her. They could never prove it in a court of law. You’d never be able to prove it.’ I mean truthfully, everybody else is dead.”

HBO

And still, the Napoleon Dynamite alum admitted he turned to Mike to fill in the blanks.

“I just remember I walked up to Mike one day, and I was like, ‘I’ve been spending so much time convincing myself that I really didn’t intend to kill her,’” he recalled, “But this is all my machine going. And I said, ‘I got to talk to you about it.’ He goes, ‘You know who you are. You know who you are. You know you’ve played this guy.’ And I said I had one question, though, psychopath?”

And according to Jon, Mike replied, “Psychopath!”

While season four of White Lotus was confirmed in January, whether Gary returns for more has yet to be revealed.  And if it was up to Jennifer, Mike will make sure that Gary, “goes up in flames” should he check into The White Lotus once again.

“I don’t know what Mike has planned for him, but I don’t want him to have a good life,” she told E! News March 30.  “You know, something terrible needs to happen to Greg, don’t you think?”

Keep reading for more about season three of The White Lotus…

HBO; Christopher Polk/Shutterstock

Lalisa Manobal

How you like that? The singer known mononymously as Lisa went from being a rockstar on world stages as part of K-pop group Blackpink—alongside Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé—to donning the White Lotus staff uniform for her big debut as Mook.

HBO; Entertainment Pictures/Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com

Jason Isaacs

Looks like Lucius Malfoy missed the train to Hogwarts and instead landed at The White Lotus. That’s right: He may look different without the luscious blond hair, but the Harry Potter star is returning to the screen as another uppity father figure, playing Timothy Ratliff, described as a “wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife and three children.”

Isaacs has also made more recent appearances on TV shows like Robot Chicken, The Great and Sex Education (alongside his White Lotus costar Aimee Lou Wood.)

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Parker Posey

Don’t scream when you see it, but Posey—who plays Timothy’s wife Victoria Ratliff—may look familiar from her movies Superman Returns, Blade: Trinity, Scream 3 and Dazed and Confused. She’s also had brief stints on such TV shows as Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Portlandia and Search Party.

But the real rom-com fans will know her from the 1998 classic You’ve Got Mail, in which she played Joe Fox’s (Tom Hanks) girlfriend Patricia Eden.

HBO; Prime Video

Patrick Schwarzenegger

While you may know him best from family photos as the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, he has already made a name for himself acting in Gen V, The Terminal List and The Staircase before playing Saxon Ratliff in season three. 

HBO; Warner Bros. Pictures

Sarah Catherine Hook

Prior to taking on the part of the Ratliffs’ daughter Piper, Hook got her feet wet in the horror and fantasy genres, portraying Debbie Glatzel in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Juliette Fairmont in First Kill and Elena Milak in Monsterland.

You may also know her from the 2024 Cruel Intentions remake as Caroline Merteuil or from the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe, in which she played Catherine Allday Davis in Impeachment: American Crime Story about the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal.

HBO; Netflix

Sam Nivola

Nivola—who is dating Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann’s daughter Iris Apatow—rounds out the Ratliff family as young Lochlan. But before hitting the shores of Thailand, he was in another show about a rich family at the beach: The Perfect Couple, playing Will Winbury, the son of Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber’s Greer and Tag Winbury. He even costarred on the Netflix drama with White Lotus alum Meghann Fahy, who appeared as Daphne Sullivan on season two of the HBO show before playing Merritt Monaco on The Perfect Couple.

Nivola has also acted in White Noise with Adam Driver, Maestro with Bradley Cooper and With/In with Anne Hathaway. 

HBO

Natasha Rothwell

Of course, White Lotus fans will recognize Rothwell from season one, in which she played spa guru Belinda in Maui. Not only is she reprising the part for season three, but the actress has also graced the screen in Insecure, Wonka, A Year and Change and Love, Simon. Plus, she lent her comedy chops to Saturday Night Live as a writer from 2014 to 2015.

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Leslie Bibb

The Iron Man alum is assembling to play Kate in The White Lotus after portraying Christine Everhart in the Marvel franchise. More recently, she starred in Palm Royale as Dinah Donahue and Jupiter’s Legacy as Grace Kennedy-Sampson.

HBO; 20th Century Fox/Regency/Kobal/Shutterstock

Carrie Coon

The Gilded Age star—who may also look familiar from The Sinner, Fargo and The Leftovers—steps into the role of Laurie, who joins pals Kate and Jaclyn for a girls’ trip in Thailand this season.

HBO; Kobal/Shutterstock

Michelle Monaghan

While Monaghan plays TV star Jaclyn on The White Lotus, she’s also a TV star IRL, having been on True Detective, Bad Monkey, Messiah and The Path. On the big screen, she’s starred as Julia in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Angie Genaro in Gone Baby Gone.

HBO; Columbia/The Weinstein Company/Kobal/Shutterstock

Walton Goggins

You’ll feel justified in knowing that it’s not all in your head—Goggins really does look familiar. In addition to starring in two Quentin Tarantino movies (playing Billy Crash in Django Unchained and Sheriff Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight), he is also known for being Boyd Crowder in Justified from 2010 to 2015.

HBO; Netflix

Aimee Lou Wood

The English actress joins the cast in season three as free-spirited Chelsea, who has an age-gap romance with Goggins’ character Rick Hatchett. Yet, she is best known for her role as Aimee Gibbs on Netflix’s Sex Education and also appeared in Seize Them! and Daddy Issues.

HBO; One 31

Lek Patravadi

Her acting credits may trace back 50 years—starting with Grounded God in 1975—but she most recently portrayed Prani Chiraanan on In Family We Trust in 2018.

HBO; C More Entertainment

Tayme Thapthimthong

The singer and former military man has acting credits that include Mechanic: Resurrection, Skin Trade and Paradox, as well as playing Pao on the TV series Farang.

HBO; A24

Christian Friedel

If 13 minutes wasn’t enough time to figure out where you recognize the German actor, allow us to refresh your memory. He played Rudolf Höss in The Zone of Interest, Reinhold Gräf in Babylon Berlin and Georg Elser in 13 Minutes.

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