Jennifer Coolidge and Mike White Talk Iconic 'White Lotus' Finale

"These gays, they're trying to murder me," Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) tells the captain of the yacht she's been abducted on in the finale of "The White Lotus" Season 2. That the captain doesn't speak any English and only responds "tutti gay" means that he is gay as well and is turning a blind eye to the machinations of her host, British high-roller Quentin (Tom Hollander). And it seals her fate in a moment both chilling and funny. The captain is oblivious to her long speech where she explains how her absent husband Greg (Jon Gries) has conspired with Quentin to kill her and get her huge fortune (their prenup would keep Greg from inheriting anything if they divorce, but if she should die, he would get everything).

That she didn't use a translation app on her phone to express herself indicates how clueless Tanya was. There was also a ladder that led to the dinghy she ignored before she attempted to jump in it only to bang her head on its side and to drown.
"Tanya didn't notice!" Coolidge told Variety. "Mike White thinks it's very funny that I can handle big things, but a little thing will be my demise. Like, my technical inabilities with my phone or something will keep me from accomplishing something big. These small things throw me off. It was so in line with who I am – I even heard Mike say that to somebody. Not noticing something that could save my life."

Coolidge says that Tanya's demise was something White told her early on, but she didn't know how it would happen. "I wasn't happy about it! But Mike White's a genius – I knew my ending would be good. When he told me I was going to die, he didn't have the ending yet, he hadn't completely orchestrated it out. I was kind of bummed, but Mike knows how to tell a story better than anyone I know, so I knew I just had to trust it. You can't talk Mike White out of anything, so I'll just have to go on some different adventures this year and maybe go visit Mike when they're filming [Season 3]."

Despite the violent end to the series, White managed to keep it funny in having Tanya ask the mortally wounded Quentin if her husband was having an affair.

"There's so many things in that line. One, that's so important to women. And you have to remember, this is a dramedy. There's a lot of comedy in this show. Even with all the bodies strewn around on the floor, that's a question that Tanya wants answered, despite this horrific scene she's standing in. When I read it, I thought it was brilliant. And two, she really wants to know. People want to know if she really got all that was going on. She talks to Portia about putting the pieces together, but that deep denial is just beyond reason."

Coolidge has long been a gay icon, if only for her roles in "American Pie" and "Legally Blonde," as well as "Best in Show" where she played an equally clueless heiress as Tanya, who was also gay. What did she think of being a gay icon who murders a boat full of gay men?

"That is so Mike White. I wouldn't have come up with that scenario myself, it wouldn't occur to me. Gay men can be catty, but mostly they are the good guys in a lot of films that I've seen. But Mike White made these guys kind of wicked, very corrupt soulless guys. He told me, 'You end up getting taken in by this group of – well, let's just say they're evil gays.' I just got so riveted, I was so enthralled. You know, Tanya's not onto them, but she's finally being appreciated and she's finally having a good time on this horrific trip."

To the New York Times, Coolidge said that she wasn't happy with her demise and attempted to talk him out of it. "I don't have to die, right?" she asked White.

"Even when we were shooting the scene in the ocean where Daphne finds her body. She was like, 'Should we just do one take where I pull myself up on the shore? Just one?'" White recalled.

"That's an actress fighting for another season! I wanted to be practical in case Mike had a change of heart. I just wanted to leave the possibilities open," Coolidge said.

Asked if he had any regrets about killing off Tanya, White told the Times he didn't. "But yesterday, I went over and watched the show alone with Jennifer. At one point, I was kind of laughing and I looked over at her, and she was so sad for Tanya. In that moment, I was like, 'Oh, this is the end for me and Jennifer.' And Jennifer's the reason I did 'White Lotus' in the first place. Because I just wanted to write something for her and I just adore her. So it's sad. I didn't realize it until yesterday, but now I am sad. It's going to be hard to do it without her. There's definitely going to be something missing."

To which Coolidge responded, "I didn't expect, last night, to be as moved as I was."

Asked if she's forgiven White for killing her off, she said: "No, not at all. I'll forever be sad about this."

White responded. "Maybe it's like Kenny on 'South Park': Every season Tanya has to come in and just die all over again," he said.