Did Woody Harrelson almost appear on The White Lotus Season 3? Here's the big reveal

Mike White's The White Lotus is known for bringing a talented ensemble cast of A-listers every season as part of an elite group vacationing and doing crazy things in the titular resort.

The show is currently airing its Season 3 on Max, which is set in Thailand and finally answers all the mysteries in the finale, scheduled for next Sunday. Running for 90 minutes, the Season 3 finale will be the longest-running episode of the series yet.

While the Season 3 cast is a hit and has made their own space among fans, they revealed in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter that American actor Woody Harrelson was almost cast in the role of Rick.

Primetime Award-winning actor Harrelson is best known for his roles in Game Change, Zombieland, True Detective, and many more. The role of Rick was eventually played by Walton Goggins.

More on Woody Harrelson's almost casting in The White Lotus Season 3.

Woody Harrelson was almost finalized to play Rick on The White Lotus Season 3

Looks like Woody Harrelson was not meant to star in The White Lotus Season 3, as he was in talks for not one but two roles in the dark comedy series.

Harrelson was first offered the role of Rick Hatchett (played by Goggins eventually) but had salary negotiations, which he eventually mended with the production. However, he had to drop the role because of a scheduling conflict. According to The Hollywood Reprter, Harrelson even went to the Warner Bros Office to negotiate his role in Season 3:

“According to two sources, Woody Harrelson, who initially was considered for the Rick Hatchett role, went all the way to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to see if his salary could be negotiated. It couldn’t. Nevertheless, he signed on, then later dropped out due to scheduling.”

In the same interview, producer David Bernad also revealed that all of The White Lotus cast members are paid the same, which often leads to salary negotiations for some actors like Harrelson.

However, Harrelson's journey to appear in the show did not end here, as he was later offered the role of Frank, which eventually went to Sam Rockwell, and became one of the most viral moments of Season 3 on the Internet. Frank's role also fell through for Harrelson, but there is no bad blood between him and White, as he praised Rockwell (via The Hollywood Reporter):

"I was set to do White Lotus and very excited. Unfortunately, their production schedule shifted, and it conflicted with a pre-planned family vacation, forcing me to make an extremely hard decision. Things must be meant to be though, because I couldn't have done as fantastic a job as Sam, who is killing it."

What were some other recasts on The White Lotus Season 3?

While Harrelson was a considerable big recast for The White Lotus Season 3, there were others.

Gary's girlfriend Chloe was initially played by Francesca Corney, who even spent the first few weeks with the cast on set. But later, the team thought Corney was too young to play Chloe, which ultimately led them to recast her role.

French-Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bon was eventually cast in the role of Chloe. She has previously worked on projects like Le Grand Journal, The Hundred-Foot Journey, and The Walk.

In addition to Rick and Chloe, Valentin's Russian friend Aleksei was also re-cast at the last minute. Serbian actor Miloš Biković was replaced by actor Julian Kostov because of the former's alleged pro-Putin views.

Kostov's projects include Creature Commandos, Shadow and Bone, A Discovery of Witches, and many more.

Catch The White Lotus Season 3 finale on Max on April 6, 2025.

Also Read: The White Lotus Season 3 finale: 5 wildest theories about how the show could end

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Edited by Abhimanyu Sharma