Wasn’t The Right Way To Engage

The White Lotus star Carrie Coon has revealed creator Mike White cut a queer detail about the child of her character, Laurie. The third season of White’s biting anthology takes place at a lavish resort in Thailand, where a new group of privileged Americans are slowly unraveling. Amid the latest arrivals in The White Lotus season 3’s cast is the childhood friend trio consisting of Hollywood actress Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), New York lawyer Laurie (Coon), and Texas country club wife Kate (Leslie Bibb), whose long-simmering toxic friendship has made for a tense girls’ trip.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Coon revealed that her character’s child was originally written as non-binary, but White ultimately chose to remove that detail from the final version of the script following Donald Trump’s re-election. Laurie’s high-school-aged child, Ellie, has been mentioned briefly throughout the season, mostly in Kate and Jaclyn’s gossip. Check out Coon’s comments below:

There was a bit more context to her home life. You originally found out that her daughter was actually non-binary, maybe trans, and going by they/them. You see Laurie struggling to explain it to her friends, struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language, which was all interesting.

It was only a short scene, but for me, it did make the question [in episode 3] of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world. But the season was written before the election. And considering the way the Trump administration has weaponized the cultural war against transgender people even more since then, when the time came to cut the episode down, Mike felt that the scene was so small and the topic so big that it wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation.

What The Queer Identity Of Laurie’s Child Means For White Lotus

Rewatching Season 3 Hits Differently With This Detail

Carrie Coon’s revelation about Laurie’s daughter reframes several moments throughout Laurie, Jaclyn, and Kate’s intense drama. In White Lotus season 3, episode 2, Kate mocks Laurie’s drinking to Jaclyn, calls her “defeated,” and gossips about Ellie’s expulsions from several schools. If Ellie’s non-binary identity had been included, those same comments might read less as idle judgment and more as a glimpse into Laurie’s isolated battle to support a child facing serious societal challenges—one her friends neither understand nor care to ask about.

The dinner-table bombshell in The White Lotus season 3, episode 3, also takes on new weight in light of the cut scene. Laurie’s discomfort after Kate admits to voting for Trump isn’t just a political rift, but a protective instinct. With Trump’s policies targeting transgender and non-binary Americans, Kate’s vote lands as a personal betrayal, turning what first appeared to be a clash of ideologies into something far more intimate and painful. By removing the scene, White may have sidestepped a potentially incendiary issue, but also sacrificed a more layered understanding of Laurie’s motivations.

Our Take On Ellie’s Cut Queer Identity

Visibility Matters Now More Than Ever

White’s decision to cut Ellie’s non-binary identity feels like a missed opportunity. Even a brief moment of queer representation carries weight—especially now, after Trump’s second presidency began with an executive order enforcing a biological view of gender. Ellie’s presence could have normalized what many families experience today: parenting a queer child in an increasingly hostile state. In a show known for its social commentary, including this detail in The White Lotus wouldn’t have been too small. It would’ve been timely, necessary, and real.

Source: Harper’s Bazaar

The White Lotus

9/10

Release Date

July 11, 2021

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Mike White

Directors

Mike White

Writers

Mike White