The White Lotus' Meghann Fahy: 'Don't Underestimate Daphne'

*Warning: This article contains The White Lotus season two spoilers*

With a Christmas tree in the background, an off duty and holiday-ready Meghann Fahy warmly greets me over Zoom from her parents home in Massachusetts the day before Thanksgiving. She turns the screen around to show me the festive decorations around the fireplace her mum – who later pops her head in to say 'hello' - has eagerly put up before Christmas.

The last time Fahy was home in January she received the call that she'd landed the role of Daphne in the second series of Mike White’s satirical TV comedy The White Lotus, which was relocating from Hawaii to Sicily. She quickly reversed the lease agreement she’d just signed for a property in Los Angeles and headed to the Italian isle where she stayed for five months. Wanting to make the most out of her time in Europe, she later headed to London (‘I love Hackney, it reminds me of Brooklyn! And the bar culture, how everybody drinks outside’). Fahy landed back in the US in August, three months before the HBO drama hit screens and a whole new level of fame came her way.

Fahy is the first actor fans see in the opening scenes of the second series, ending her holiday with a final swim in the Mediterranean sea before coming across a body - one of the White Lotus Hotel’s guests. From there viewers are catapulted back to the week prior to Daphne's discovery and are in the process of working out the identity of the victims (or, rather, victims) as each weekly episode drops.

Five episodes in and we’re still working Daphne out. She's married to Silicon Valley financier Cameron (Theo James) and holidaying with his old, but newly rich, college roommate Ethan (Will Sharpe) and wife Harper (played with the hilarious deadpan delivery of Aubrey Plaza). We also know that Daphne is a mother, struggles to make friends with women despite the warmth she exudes to Harper, loves to shop and is madly in love with her husband – evident by their constant PDA, much to Harper’s disgust.

‘She’s definitely a mixture of a few people that I either know, or know of,' explains Fahy. 'She's like a “zen mummy” that you see on Instagram. These beautiful women wearing flowing $800 (£661) floral dresses who always have a baby on a hip. They have all these kids, and just look so effortless and fun. Everything just seems simple for her, from the outside.’

Daphne is in love with her husband, but not blindly in love. In fact, the two things White told Fahy about her character before shooting was ‘they really do love each other and she’s not a victim’, which Daphne pointedly tells Harper in Episode Three after acknowledging Cameron’s cheating.

‘We've seen that dynamic before where the woman's like, “I'd rather have him like this than not have him at all.” I don't think that Daphne feels that way - I think this works for her. I don't think she's agreeing to Cameron's circumstances, I think that she's an active participant in an agreement they've made together.’

Or so it seems. That is until Cameron appears to push boundaries that surely the most active participant in a turn-the-other-way agreement would struggle with. Like in Episode Five when Cameron feels up Harper under the table, while at dinner with Daphne.

‘I don't think he's attracted to Harper. I think that he likes the power that comes with making her feel like he might be. I also think it has less to do with her and more to do with how he relates to Ethan. I think Cameron feels a little bit threatened and so flirting with Harper and these things that he does, like the way he speaks to Ethan, are all an effort for him to maintain his sense of self-importance.’

Just like the first season, the thematic undertones of the series are class and wealth disparity, which are highlighted on no greater stage than inside a luxury hotel. However, in season two there’s an evident focus on sexual and gender politics, symbolised by the four holidaying friends. Fahy teases that Episode Seven is when we might get the most insightful glimpse into her character but, for now, one thing she knows is not to underestimate Daphne. She is cleverer and deeper than her non-voting, non-news watching ways may suggest.

‘In Episode Five, when she and Harper are sitting outside, that is really dark,’ says Fahy. ‘Mike wants it to be very vague, obviously. But I think that there are a lot of ways that you could take that scene. And I think one of those ways is you could wonder if Daphne's suggesting that her child is her trainer’s child and not her husband's. She shows the photo of the kids [but is meant to show one of her personal trainer] and Harper says “these are your kids and she's like, “Oh, whoops,” but she knew it was. There are so many layers to her that I think you couldn't count it out. I don't know that it's 100% the truth, I can't say that it is because Mike didn't even tell me if that was. But I think there is a world in which that is the case.’

The White Lotus’ success is abetted by its stellar cast. The first season featured Connie Britton, Sydney Sweeney, Jake Lacy, Murray Bartlett, Alexandra Daddario (who actually pipped Fahy to the part of Rachel) plus the iconic – and, now, Emmy-winning – Jennifer Coolidge, who is the only member of the original cast to travel to Sicily for season two. ‘She is the funniest, kindest, smartest woman… they say “don't meet your heroes”, but meet Jennifer - she won't disappoint.’

This season Coolidge and Fahy are also joined by The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli, the legendary F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hollander. With such an accomplished cast, improvisation is encouraged by White. ‘In Episode Four, there's this really short speech Daphne does after the piano player collapses that was not in the script. We showed up to dinner that night and Mike said that Daphne is the one that's always just talking so asked me, “can you make up a story about how you ran a 5k?”… When you shoot those dinner scenes everybody's there, all of the actors. Tom Hollander was there, Jennifer was there, Michael. Everyone was sitting there silently listening to me make up a monologue that I wasn't expecting to do.’

Joining Fahy is a whole host of emerging names too, like Hayley Lu Richardson (Portia), Brit Leo Woodall (Jack), Simona Tabasco (Lucia) and Adam Di Marco (Albie). With such an eclectic cast situated on idyllic island for several months, it’s no surprise that they had a ball off set too. ‘We went to the beach, restaurants, took day trips, went to the volcano, we just became really good friends.

Pre The White Lotus, Fahy was most recognisable for playing Sutton in The Bold Type, a modern update of Ugly Betty, exploring the inner workings of a fictional magazine (largely based on Cosmopolitan) in the 2020s. Though there definitely are Bold Type die-hards who still approach Fahy, The White Lotus attention has taken her notoriety to a whole new level. While Fahy isn’t reading the show's fan theories and avoiding social media commentary about her character, she is noticing changes in how she's perceive by the public on a daily basis.

‘I was in New York before I came home, and I had a bunch of people stop me, or come up to me while I was at a restaurant which is so lovely, everybody's really nice and it's cool,' she ponders. 'It's a rare thing to be on a show that is such a cultural phenomenon… it is sort of a once in a career thing to be a part of a show that's that visible. So, while it is a little bit spooky sometimes or nerve-racking because you feel pressure and want everybody to be happy, I am trying to enjoy it because it's a wave. I’m just trying to move through everything thoughtfully.’

Meghann FahyStylist - Thomas Carter Phillips, Hair - Cameron Rains, Make-up - Jen Tioseco, Dress - Khaite, Jewellery - Fernando Jorge

As thoughtfully as she is trying to navigate this new level of attention, nothing could prepare her for the moment when actor Jennifer Aniston posted a meme of Daphne saying that she doesn’t vote on Instagram to rally her followers for the mid-terms: ‘That was pretty sick,' she recalls of the pinch-me moment. 'I was like, “Oh my god”. I screamed,’ Fahy smiles. ‘She’s just such a queen.’

Fans are now over half way through The White Lotus season two, and if the first series was anything to go by we can expect an explosive crescendo of a series finale. While the show is closely shrouded in secrecy, Fahy teases what's on the horizon for viewers.

‘I think what's in store for the audience is truly like, shock,' she laughs, shaking her head. 'There is so much that hasn't happened yet. The last three episodes of the show are so action packed, it's insane. It just really goes... off the rails, in a really exciting way.’

The White Lotus is available Mondays exclusively on Sky Atlantic and NOW.

Olivia Blair

Entertainment Editor (Luxury)

Olivia Blair is Entertainment Editor (Luxury) at Hearst UK, working across ELLE, Esquire and Harper's Bazaar. Olivia covers all things entertainment and has interviewed the likes of Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Michaela Coel and Ryan Gosling over the years.