It solely took 20 seconds for Mike White, the creator of “The White Lotus,” to solid the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui because the star character within the third installment of his hit HBO collection.
“Arriving to the resort, you are standing on prime of a peak and you’ll see 43 acres of lush land [and] the Gulf of Thailand, and it is simply lovely general,” Jasjit Assi, the resort’s common supervisor, informed TPG on a current go to to New York Metropolis. “And when Mike walked in, he was simply silent for 20 seconds, and he mentioned, ‘That is it.'”
In all three seasons of “The White Lotus,” the fictional common supervisor performs a key function: catering to haughty company, managing employees members who see and listen to every little thing and, at occasions, stepping into sticky conditions of their very own.
For Assi, who has labored with 4 Seasons, the luxurious hospitality model “The White Lotus” is unofficially primarily based on, for 18 years, it is easy to separate the TV common managers — like Armond on Maui and Valentina in Sicily — from his real-life function as the first chief on the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui.
“Look,” mentioned Assi, who’s nothing just like the awkward, goofy common supervisor of The White Lotus Koh Samui within the present. “‘White Lotus’ is supposed to entertain. There’s a little bit of exaggeration. It is a satire; it is a fictional drama collection.”
However what’s actual, he insists, is the fantastic thing about the resort and the distinctive Thai hospitality you see all through the season.
“You might be seeing the resort play a personality,” he mentioned. “To take care of the fantastic thing about this resort, that is my function on this.”
After White “booked” the resort for the present, he reserved a keep for himself and “skilled every little thing as a visitor,” Assi defined. He added that the 2 of them, together with White’s crew, “opened up each door that might be opened” as Assi helped the crew plan the right areas for various kinds of scenes.
Then, in February and March 2024, the resort closed to the general public to rework into “The White Lotus.” It stayed absolutely open, although, for the present’s solid.
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“In actuality, it was like operating a correct resort every single day,” Assi mentioned, despite the fact that shoots have been taking place Monday by means of Friday.
On filming days, the 4 Seasons employees adjusted to fulfill the wants of the solid and crew’s wild filming schedule.
“No matter [the crew’s] wants have been, wherever they have been shifting across the resort, the employees was serving to them out to maneuver and arrange areas,” he mentioned.
On the weekends, the celebs of the present “embraced the actual Thailand island life.” And, after 5 days of taking pictures, he defined, they wanted to chill out.
“We handled them like regular company. They might go right down to the seaside. They have been ordering cocktails. They have been going into the spa,” Assi mentioned, noting that in addition they frolicked elsewhere on the island, like native eating places, “embracing actual life.”
Actually, he mentioned, they “felt like a part of the household.” A lot so, in actual fact, that actor Parker Posey, whose journey to movie the present marked her first go to to Asia, “got here again to the resort to say thanks to the individuals who taken care of her” whereas returning to the island for a wellness retreat.
The 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui employees may need tried to make the expertise on the resort as regular as potential for the solid and crew, however for them, enjoying host to one of many world’s hottest TV exhibits required some modifications.
“We needed to educate them, to be trustworthy,” Assi mentioned about his employees, lots of whom did not perceive simply how massive the present is — or that the present’s satirical take a look at its employees did not essentially characterize them, the real-life individuals who make the resort so great.
Assi’s employees needed to be nimble, adjusting meals tailor-made to the solid’s on-set diets or serving to them plan days off. Additionally they needed to vow to secrecy.
“We needed to signal a number of NDAs and confidentiality agreements,” he mentioned, explaining that his employees discovered the way to be coy when company requested in the event that they have been going to movie “The White Lotus” there.
Now that individuals know 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui because the property from the present, the questions have modified. Individuals need to know what villa the Ratliff household stayed in (a three-bedroom villa that begins at $8,000 per night time) or the place actor Patrick Schwarzenegger got here out of the pool shirtless.
“Visitors need to [have] their very own ‘White Lotus’ experiences,” Assi confused, noting that his crew absolutely anticipated the drive in bookings the present would trigger — identical to the 4 Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Hawaii and San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A 4 Seasons Lodge in Sicily, Italy, skilled after their seasons as visitor stars.
And that is why 4 Seasons has been — and possibly will proceed to be — such an awesome associate for the present.
“The 4 Seasons philosophy has all the time been ‘inspiration by means of journey,'” Assi mentioned, “and I believe cinema on this age has [taken] it to the subsequent degree. [Four Seasons] is predicated on the pillars of an awesome location, an awesome resort and nice service … [and with the show,] you may see it.”
Now, with Season Three coming to an finish, simply do not ask Assi his ideas on the place Season 4 ought to happen. With fun he mentioned, “Let me survive this one.”
Tips on how to ebook: Charges at 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui begin at $1,800 per night time for a pool villa.
E book by means of a program like American Specific Positive Inns + Resorts or The Edit by Chase Journey to attain elitelike perks, equivalent to room upgrades (when accessible), free breakfast, late checkout and property credit.
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