Laura Dern is checking in to the The White Lotus, following Helena Bonham Carter’s sudden departure.
Bonham Carter left the hit HBO series late last week, shortly after filming began in France.
In a statement at the time, HBO said: “With filming just underway on Season 4 of The White Lotus, it had become apparent that the character which Mike White created for Helena Bonham Carter did not align once on set.”
The network said the role would be “rewritten” and “recast,” and Deadline reports that the vacancy is now set to be filled by Dern.
Dern and The White Lotus creator Mike White previously worked together to co-create the HBO show Enlightened, which ran from 2011 to 2013.
The series starred Dern as a woman who goes on a philosophical and spiritual journey after blowing up her professional life as a high-flying executive.
Season four of The White Lotus has been filming for a little over a week on the French Riviera, with the series following a new group of wealthy hotel guests during the Cannes Film Festival.
Filming is taking place in Cannes, St Tropez and Monaco, while five-star hotel Airelles Château de la Messardière becoming the White Lotus du Cap.
Along with Dern, other members of the cast include Steve Coogan, Rosie Perez, Heather Graham, Max Greenfield, Kumail Nanjiani, Vincent Cassel and Chloe Bennet as well as Sandra Bernhard, Frida Gustavsson, Charlie Hall, Jarrad Paul, Ben Schnetzer and Laura Smet.
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The Independent’s Adam White wrote this week that “losing an actor like Bonham Carter, who is so richly capable of the kind of cutting camp that White Lotus best traffics in, is a bit of a blow.”
He pointed out that the show has been no stranger to behind-the-scenes drama, adding: “By nature of the show’s premise – which required its stars to live together for months on end in an exotic locale – there were always rumors of behind-the-scenes hook-ups and occasional conflict. Just like a group holiday gone wrong.
“Season two stars Leo Woodall and Meghann Fahy met and fell in love (despite never sharing actual scenes on the show, such is the nature of The White Lotus’s off-camera living arrangements), while tabloids reported that the on-screen feuding between season one’s Murray Bartlett and Jake Lacy occasionally spilled over into reality (which they both denied).
“But it was with the show’s third outing last year that gossipy rumors seemed to become a gnarlier reality, with production for a Thailand-set season plagued by conflict both on and off the set.”
