Mike White and Meghann Fahy discuss Survivor’s cameos and The White Lotus Season 2 premiere

“About five days from now, Angelina will become a mother. She had to work hard to deliver those babies because she was pregnant, “As White puts it.

Four years after competing for $1 million on the CBS reality show Survivor: David vs. Goliath, cast mates Mike White, Angelina Keeley, and Kara Kay reconnected on a beach earlier this year.

They reunited at a beautiful Italian resort to film the opening sequence of season 2 of White’s HBO comedy satire The White Lotus, which was a far cry from their 39 days on the islands of Fiji.

Star of Season 2, Meghann Fahy, plays affluent housewife Daphne Babcock, and White brought in Keeley and Kay for cameos in the opening scene.

At the beginning of the first episode, Daphne enthusiastically approaches two women on the beach and introduces herself, explaining that she is spending her final beach day there before catching her flight back to New York.

She decides to go for a swim in the sea, but her peaceful swim is quickly interrupted as something brushes against her. When she looks down, she is shocked to see a dead body.

Police quickly swarm the beach as they remove the body from the water. Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore), manager of The White Lotus’ Sicilian outpost, learns that further dead have been pulled from the sea.

Also Read: A Recap on Episode 1 of The White Lotus Season 2: A Story Focused on Five Star Resort in Sicily

The premier then flashes back a week to when Daphne and the other guests first arrive at The White Lotus, blissfully oblivious to the drama that is about to unfold.

See below for EW’s conversation with White and Fahy about the Survivor cameos, the pilot episode, and more.

In the first place, Mike, I want to congratulate you on your three Emmy awards; hearing you talk about Survivor in your acceptance speech was a treat.

[Laughs] MIKE WHITE: Thanks! I said to myself backstage, “Uh oh, did I just win again? It looks like I’ll have to retire early. That’s it, and I’m out on the street corner.” It’s just like Survivor, and I’m in danger of being voted off the island unless someone hears my pleading pleas.

Furthermore, it was fantastic to see your fellow Survivor: David vs. Goliath cast mates in the very first scene of the season 2 premiere. Incredible,

WHITE. You knew who they were? Totally awesome. Indeed, right away. Aside from Angelina and Kara, are there going to be more Survivor cameos this season?

WHITE: Well, I’m sad to say that’s it. Just getting them out to Sicily — I mean, Angelina is about to have a baby in like five days. She was pregnant, so that was a feat just getting them out there. That’s it for this season. But I’ll let them know Entertainment Weekly immediately spotted them!

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Meghann, what was it like having the honor of being the cast member who gets to kick off the season with the dead body mystery with Angelina and Kara?

MEGHANN FAHY: That was the most exciting component, because I had watched that whole season of Survivor when I got to Italy. [Laughs]
So when Mike told me that that’s who I was going to be doing that scene with, I literally was fangirling. I couldn’t believe it. Those women are so lovely and wonderful, and we had a blast. The water stuff was a little bit trickier.

It was incredible, though — I had never shot anything in the ocean before, so I was loving it. But yeah, it gets a bit cold after a while, obviously. When I first read the pilot, and I saw that it was the first scene, the opening of the season, I just thought, “Holy s—. That’s really cool. My mom’s going to freak out.” That’s the first thing that I thought, actually.

Is your mom a big White Lotus fan?

FAHY: Yeah. My whole family watched the first season, and they were just beside themselves. They can’t wait to see me this season.

When you met Angelina and Kara, were you asking them questions about Survivor?

FAHY: I had so many questions. I really tried Googling first because I hadn’t really watched Survivor until that season, and a lot of my friends were like, “It’s the best season. If you’re going to watch one season, it should be that season.”

And I had so many questions. I was like, “Wait a minute, you really don’t have toothbrushes?” And they’re like, “No. We pooped in the ocean, and we didn’t have toothbrushes.” [Laughs] So yeah, I had a hundred questions, and they answered all of them for me.

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Were you constantly asking Mike questions about Survivor throughout filming too?

FAHY: Yeah, I was. I had finished the season by the time we shot the scene with the two girls, but I was watching it while we were shooting the rest of the season so that I would go up to the set, and I’d be like, “I just watched this episode last night. What happened at this point?” [Laughs] I think he also really enjoys talking about it, so I was like, I don’t feel like I’m annoying him. I feel like he’s happy to talk about it.

Me and Adam DiMarco, who played Albie, we watched it together, and we both would go to the set separately and just ask Mike questions. And sometimes Adam would come back, we’d be hanging out, and he’d be like, “Today I asked Mike this question. Guess what I found out?” And I’d be like, “Oh my God, no way!” We were just having this whole little Survivor study all season.

What are you most excited for people to see from you this season?

FAHY: [Laughs] The coolest thing that Daphne gets to do is, unfortunately, really top secret. You won’t know until the finale, but it’s pretty cool.

The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.