Mike White, the mind behind The White Lotus, fired back at the show’s composer, Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, for walking away from the series, dubbing it a “bitch move.”
During a recent chat on the Howard Stern Show, White opened up about his feelings on the matter.
“I’m completely in the dark about what went down, except now I’m seeing his interviews because he’s launched some PR campaign about quitting the show,” White remarked. “I don’t think he gave me any respect. He’s trying to paint himself as edgy and dark while making me out to be someone who just watches reality TV or whatever. We never even had a real argument. He’s claiming we had some feud.”
“I never really fought with him – except maybe through some emails,” White went on. “It was just me giving feedback. I think he hated getting notes from me, or being asked for changes, because he didn’t think much of me. I knew he wasn’t about teamwork and wanted things his way.”
White finished his rant with a cutting remark. “I was shocked that he’d go to The New York Times and trash me and the show just three days before the finale,” White added. “That was kind of a bitch move.”
Later, White shared more about his strained relationship with Tapia de Veer, claiming the composer “didn’t want to go through the process with me” and “skipped sessions” during the third season’s production. “He’d always look at me with this dismissive smirk like he thought I was some kind of monkey,” said White. “He’s definitely blowing a creative disagreement way out of proportion.”
White’s verbal attack comes shortly after Tapia de Veer told the New York Times that he and White clashed over The White Lotus theme song. White wanted the music to drop its iconic “ooh-loo-loo-loos” that had become the composer’s trademark in the show’s first two seasons. Tapia de Veer explained that White wanted something different for season 3: “background music… a song that’s more like something you’d hear in Ibiza, at some trendy spot with a chill, sexy atmosphere.”
“I messaged the producer saying it would be great to eventually give them the extended version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because fans would go crazy when they realized it was heading there anyway,” Tapia de Veer said. “He thought it was a solid idea. But then Mike cut that – he wasn’t happy about it. By that point, we’d already had our final blowout, I think. So he was just rejecting everything.”
