White Lotus star Carrie Coon has responded to conservative commentator Meghan McCain following an online spat between the pair following the latter’s support of Donald Trump.
Coon is currently starring in season three of the hit black comedy which has now taken viewers to a luxury hotel in Thailand and has already generated its fair share of controversy both on and off the screen.
Amongst its cast of characters is Coon’s Laurie who has travelled to Thailand with her best friends Kate (Leslie Bibb) and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan).
In the third episode of the season, Kate subtly reveals to her friends, much to their amazement, that she voted for Donald Trump in the recent US election.
This scene became part of the argument between Coon and McCain in March after the commentator thanked the president for his State of the Union address and his support for cancer treatments.
Coon replied to McCain, asking: “Who’s gonna tell her?” McCain then fired back with an image of Bibb’s character from the aforementioned scene.
A few days later McCain said that she couldn’t “decide if I should still watch White Lotus tonight since one of the stars decided to tweet some nasty crap at me.”
She was backed by fellow conservative Megyn Kelly who told her to “Watch it anyway. Virtually every star in every movie and TV show hates conservatives, who could watch nothing if the prerequisite were: the ppl on screen could possibly like me or be like me.”
Coon, 44, has since taken the high road in the dispute. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, as part of an oral history of the new season, she said: “I do think people like Meghan McCain and her community are really gratified to see a conservative person on television.”
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She added: “I have conservative people in my life who reached out to me to say that was an awesome conversation because I don’t think it vilifies Kate.”
It comes after Coon revealed that White Lotus writer and director Mike White cut a scene from the show after Trump won the election.
White had intended for Coon’s character to have a more extensive backstory before Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender, nonbinary and intersex Americans made the plot line appear too fleeting.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Coon explained: “There was a bit more context to her home life. You originally found out that her daughter was actually nonbinary, 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,” she continued.
“It was only a short scene, but for me, it did make the question [in episode three] of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world.”
