From playing the game of Survivor, Kara Kay and Angelina Keeley know what it’s like to be blindsided. But their former tribemate and The White Lotus creator Mike White still managed to shock them when he asked if they’d appear in his show’s second season.
For those unfamiliar with the MWCU (Mike White Creative Universe), Kay, Keeley, and White appeared on Survivor: David vs. Goliath in 2018. They started off in the Goliath tribe, and season one of The White Lotus actually featured another teammate in Alec Merlino, who played a bartender at the Hawaiian locale. So how did Kay and Keeley get from an island full of rationed rice and backstabbing to Sicilian paradise? As is the case with many great plans, White told his former colleagues over brunch last November.
“I was a little frazzled; I was running late,†Keeley says. “As I sat down, he goes, ‘I’m putting you two in White Lotus.’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s funny, let’s get some mimosas and lattes.’ Why would he let us goofballs anywhere near his set? Mike was front row to some of the worst acting moments of my life on Survivor: jacketgate and the fake idol.â€
Eventually, White convinced them he was not bluffing and they’d be jetting off to Italy in the coming months.
The season begins with Kay and Keeley chitchatting with Meghann Fahy’s Daphne about their Italian vacation before Daphne takes a dip in the water — and bumps into a corpse. “Pretty early on we knew there was American Woman No. 1 and American Woman No. 2. He kept saying ‘opening scene’; I was like, Maybe we’re in the background, waving, drinking some cocktails,†Kay says. “Then we got a draft of the script and realized, oh we have lines, we’re going to say something. We’re going to be acting.â€
Though both had some nerves making their non-reality TV debut, they were welcomed with open arms on set. Fahy invited them to run lines on her hotel balcony the night before they filmed, and Kay and Keeley picked out several outfits for the costume department to approve, which was key in making them feel comfortable (especially for Keeley, who was four months pregnant at the time). The only expectation was that they look like “wealthy tourists traveling†— they pulled their picks online by sorting from high to low and Googling “where do the one percent get their swimwear?â€
And in “true Angelina form,†Keeley got some negotiating in. Wardrobe originally wanted to put her in a huge hat, which she was unsure about; when White swung by to check on the two before cameras rolled, she expressed her doubts about the headwear, and The White Lotus honcho agreed she should kill the look.
Though the two don’t have any speaking lines once the body is discovered, they still had to tap into their acting chops. Kay took an understated, shocked approach to the moment, but Keeley’s performance was … something else. “I was wiping a fake tear away like I was at a funeral. Mike came up like, ‘Angelina, this is why you’re perfect for reality TV. You’re so over the top,â€Â she says, laughing. “Less grief, more shock.â€
At the premiere for the new season, White noted there’s “some Survivor weaved into the show†thematically. Kay thinks the social-game aspect plays into the interpersonal relationships at the Sicilian resort: “A lot of it is how people deal with others and how we’re all human at the root of it.†And in Keeley’s eyes, the through line comes through victory. “Survivor is about winning by being cunning and strong,†she says. “In White Lotus one, winning is about money and socioeconomic levels. With White Lotus two, it’s about sexual politics and power.â€
The Goliath duo sees the ongoing trend of Survivors appearing in The White Lotus as Easter eggs, a bridge between White’s various creative wells. It’s clear deep friendships were formed back on the beaches of Fiji; when White traveled to Hawaii this past September, Kay and Merlino came along (as did White’s adorable pooch, Peanut). To help celebrate the first season’s ten Emmy wins, she baked him a heart-shaped banoffee pie adorned with lit candles.
But when asked which alum they’d like to see join a potential White Lotus season three, the two revert back to that specific Survivor coyness.
“Oh my God, it’s like Survivor all over again. I plead the fifth,†Kay says. “That’s up to Mike. I’ll leave it to his creative genius,†Keeley adds.
The game never ends.