If you can believe it, Beatrice Grannò, the Italian actress who plays local Sicilian girl and aspiring singer Mia on season two of the White Lotus, did not get into Italian drama school when she applied. “She got in, I didn’t,” Grannò says. Wondering who the “she” is in this scenario is? Well, it’s none other Simona Tabasco who plays her best friend and fellow local Lucia on the HBO series. Despite matriculating to different drama schools (“I went to London ’cause Italy didn’t want me,” Grannò says, cheekily) Granno and Tobasco stayed friends and even filmed their auditions for The White Lotus together.
“We got it together and then I think that that experience of White Lotus really brought us closer,” says Grannò. “We used that a lot also because we were together in this experience. Two Italian girls, like, supporting each other and that was Lucia and Mia, you know?”
In episode two, you can find Lucia and Mia supporting each other by taking the hotel by storm, gaining unfettered access into the enclave of the one percent much to the chagrin of hotel manager Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore) due to Dominic (Michael Imperioli‘s) and his, well, affection for Lucia. But Grannò’s Mia is right along side her, spending Dominic’s money on clothes and booze, lounging poolside, and even getting a chance to display her musical aspirations in an impromptu piano performance at the hotel bar. “I’ve always dreamed of playing a musician and I, I’ve been playing the piano and singing for a long time,” she said. With a little guidance from Este Haim, of the band Haim who served as a musical consultant on the series, Grannò was able to make her dreams a reality.
On this week’s Still Watching podcast, Richard Lawson and Chris Murphy dive into the second episode The White Lotus and discuss whether nice guys like Albie (Adam DiMarco) always finish last, the growing tension and flirtation between Cameron (Theo James) and Harper (Aubrey Plaza), and Mia and Lucia’s wild night with Dominic. At the end of the episode, Lawson and Murphy get into some juicy listener theories about who ends up floating face down in the Mediterranean at end of the vacation. Listen below, and find a partial transcript of the Beatrice Grannò interview as well. For your own questions, theories please e-mail stillwatchingpod@gmail.com
In this cast, you and Simona are both outsiders in this cast of Americans, and a lot of sort of, like, very famous American actors. What was that dynamic like?
Beatrice Grannò: I was going crazy because I, you know, I love Aubrey Plaza, Michael Imperioli and Murray Abraham, so I was, like, “Is this really, like, how is this happening? How am I, uh, how I am at this level? I don’t know. Am I, will I be good enough? Will I be, like, good as good as they are?'” And you know, I felt that. I felt that gap, of course. But then at one point, I was like, I mean, Mike White was looking for an Italian girl who could play the piano and sing. And he wanted me to have this kind of, you know, pure and innocent vibe at the beginning. I was like this is good for me. Like, I was so lucky that he wrote the character because that was the luck moment. Because when he was writing it, he didn’t know that there was an Italian girl there that was just perfect. That moment was lucky for me. But once I got there, I was like, “This is so incredible. I feel so grateful, but at the same time, you know, I’m helping this show as well.”
You’re an integral part of the cast, right? You’re absolutely necessary. And I love, I love that you just said about, um, Mia being sort of like an innocent girl, at least at first and whatnot. In the first episode, you throw a drink at the hotel pianist, because he insinuates that you’re a sex worker. She’s sort of wrestling with what she has to do to sort of get ahead. She says, I’m, you know, “I’m a singer, I’m not a prostitute.” Can you tell me a little bit about that sort of juxtaposition? There’s the two forces within her that are at odds.
Yeah, but there is something about it that is quite funny. I think Mike White kind of made that up while we were working together, like, this joke about my character, that every time I kind of open up, like, “I want to be a singer, that’s my dream.” And on the other side, people, like, misunderstands it and they go, “So you want to have sex?” Like, “Oh. You’re this happy because of this?” And she goes, “No, I’m just being open. You know, and I’m smiling and you’re the piano guy, not because I want to have sex with you, but because you’re a musician. And I want to be that too.” And, and I think the thing is, like, you know when you want something really bad, then you become so clumsy because you want to get there and you don’t think. You’re just like, “Maybe I can do this, this and this.” And then while you do it, you just, you know, you tear everything apart and, like, Mia will do so many mess, so much mess. And it’s like, she’s clumsy and she doesn’t really know. Like, she just wants to play the piano. You know?
I was so happy to see in this episode, you and Lucia, when you, when you got in, when you had that scene with Valentina and she was so mad, you know? Can you talk to me about that? Like, Valentina, the relationship between Mia and Lucia and Valentina and sort of, you know, you know, Lucia even says, like, “Hey, you’re a working girl, we’re working girls, we’re all working here.”
