‘The White Lotus’ Composer Quits Over ‘Fights’ as Jason Isaacs Hints at Trouble on Set

Martin Holmes April 3, 2025, 7:54 am

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Jason Isaacs White Lotus — Stefano Delia/HBO

The White Lotus is known for its drama and tension on-screen, but it appears things also got uncomfortably tense behind the scenes while filming the currently-airing third season.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, the Emmy-winning composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer revealed he won’t be returning to the HBO series for Season 4 after clashing with the show’s creator, Mike White, over Season 3’s theme music.

This comes amid complaints from viewers about the show getting rid of the iconic “ooh-loo-loo-loos” from the theme song. According to Tapia de Veer, White wanted the soundtrack of Season 3 to be more “background music … a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe.”

“I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give [the fans] the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” Tapia de Veer told the outlet. “He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that.”

Tapia de Veer added, “I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything.”

He went on to say he decided to quit ahead of Season 4, revealing that he told “the team” a few months ago. “I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever,” the acclaimed composer continued. “Except I told the whole editorial team and music editor and producer and all that, but I didn’t think that they were going to tell him. At some point he heard about that.”

The music wasn’t the only issue during Season 3. Jason Isaacs, who plays troubled financier Timothy Ratliff on the show, said the filming process “wasn’t a holiday” despite shooting at a luxurious Four Seasons Hotel in Thailand.

“Some people got very close, there were friendships that were made and friendships that were lost,” he added. “All the things you would imagine with a group of people unanchored from their home lives on the other side of the world, in the intense pressure cooker of the working environment with eye-melting heat and insects and late nights.”

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Isaacs didn’t elaborate on specifics, noting, “They say in the show, ‘What happens in Thailand stays in Thailand,’ but there’s an off-screen White Lotus as well, with fewer deaths but just as much drama. I became very close to some people and less close to others, but we still all had that experience together and there’s a certain level of discretion required.”

Isaacs’ co-star Aimee Lou Wood, who plays Chelsea in Season 3, also opened up about the “extreme” filming process in an interview with The Guardian last month.

“I don’t know whether I’d describe it as fun,” she stated. “There were fun moments. It was more like… amazing in the true sense. I was amazed by what was happening. How am I in Thailand? Living in a hotel, that we also film in? It was like a social experiment.”

She added, “I will never have an experience like that again. It was so extreme. So the fun bits were unbelievable, so special. The ocean, the landscape, it was majestic. Mike is a genius. Everyone involved is amazing. It’s just the circumstances are quite extreme.”

The White Lotus, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO