The White Lotus’s Meghann Fahy Is in Her Breakout Era

Calling it now: Meghann Fahy is about to have her Sydney Sweeney moment. Like Sweeney, Fahy already had a legion of young fans from her previous TV work, on Freeform’s The Bold Type, before her role on The White Lotus. And like Sweeney, she gets a chance to shine and reach a new audience with a standout performance on the hit show. Next stop, world domination?

Fahy’s is the first face we see on season two of HBO’s Emmy-winning dramedy. On the idyllic shores of Sicily, she waxes rhapsodic about her and her husband’s stay at the resort before taking a dip in the water…and finding a dead body. As in the first season, we then flash back to a week earlier and watch our guests arrive, wondering all along who the corpse in the water was, and how they got there. 

Fahy plays Daphne, the stay-at-home wife of a new-money asshole (Theo James). Daphne is sweet but somewhat entitled or, shall we say, less than aware of life’s many challenges. In real life, Fahy is incredibly humble, to the point that she never thought she’d get the part.

“It was a self-tape that popped up and was all at once the most exciting and most depressing thing ever because I just thought there was no chance that it was ever gonna be something that I would end up doing,” Fahy recalls. “But I was such a fan of the show. And here we are. It’s crazy.”

Crazy but beautiful. Fahy got the call three weeks before she was due on set on the other side of the world, so she packed her bags and didn’t come home for almost six months. Luckily, she loved every minute of it.

For the latest New Here, Meghann Fahy opens up about the joys of filming on Italian beaches and her favorite shows to watch:

Glamour: How was it shooting in Sicily?

Meghann Fahy: When we first got there, we were staying at the Four Seasons for the first couple of months, and then once we left, every couple of weeks we were traveling around to a new little town. And one of the amazing things about the show is that it’s such an ensemble that you really do get a chance to, on your off days, go around and explore and check things out. 

Because it wasn’t the thick of COVID, like the first season where they weren’t even allowed to leave the property of the hotel, we were able to travel. We could go to Paris for the weekend if we wanted or a different part of Italy, which was something that was not lost on any of us, just how lucky we were that we shot it when we did and that that was available to us.

Tell me about Daphne. We all know that girl, but you have to get under the skin. Can you tell me about what parts of her you relate to and how you prepared to play her?

I think the most relatable part of Daphne is just her innate warmth. She’s certainly a person that I would call unconcerned with basically everything that’s happening in the world, and voting, and those qualities are not necessarily things that I relate to. But it does come naturally for her to make people feel comfortable. You can really feel her trying with Harper [Aubrey Plaza] to make a connection and ask Harper questions about what she does for work and what kind of things she’s interested in. 

And of course, as the season unfolds, you start to see that there’s a lot more going on under the surface than meets the eye, which is just a housewife who is not anything.

Speaking of unfolding, it sounds like you didn’t shoot in chronological order. Did you know all the twists and revelations going in? Did you get all the scripts at once?

We did shoot out of order, which was really interesting. We were sort of shooting everything all at the same time based on locations. We did get all of the scripts right up front, which is just a testament to [series creator] Mike [White] and his process. I mean, he writes so quickly and he doesn’t do many revisions. 

So after I found out that I was cast, I got the scripts shortly thereafter, and I sat on my couch and read episodes one through seven cover to cover in one sitting because I just couldn’t stop reading it. I couldn’t wait to figure out what was gonna happen. It’s really compelling this season. A little bit faster-paced than season one and a bit more action-packed as well.

One of my favorite scenes in the first episode, as someone who writes about TV and talks about TV all the time, is when Daphne and Harper are comparing what they watch. So what are you watching?

I just finished watching Severance, which everybody had been telling me to watch for so long. And it was amazing. I cannot wait for season two. Have you seen it?

No, I’m too scared!

It’s not really creepy. It’s more psychologically thrilling, which I tend to gravitate toward more than classic scary things. But one of the leads, Britt Lower, is a woman that I did my first indie movie with in New York like 12 years ago. So it was extra fun for me to watch it because she’s so fantastic in it. 

I also just finished Tell Me Lies, which was addicting and juicy. And I’m also watching The Patient with Steve Carrell and Domhnall Gleeson, which is so cool because it’s 25-minute episodes of this really intense drama and I haven’t seen anything laid out like that before, and I just think it’s so interesting and cool.

What has been some of the response you’ve gotten from friends and fans and family? Even from the time you were cast up to the premiere.

It’s definitely the first time I’ve been a part of a project that has so much excitement surrounding it. And like I said, I was such a fan of the first season that this is truly a dream come true for me. It’s been amazing. I don’t read a lot of the things because I feel like that’s a bit of a slippery slope for me, but my feeling is that people really dug the episode.

Well, I don’t want to put you on a slippery slope, but I’ll just say, I follow a lot of TV people on Twitter and whenever the first round of screeners went out, I saw like five different people just talking about you.

That’s really nice! And honestly, I can’t even take any credit for it because Mike makes it so easy; his writing is so smart and it just—he just makes it easy. I feel really grateful that I’ve been able to work with such a great creative team. The whole team is just brilliant. 

Are there any other dream projects or dream collaborators you’d want to work with? Anything else you saw season one of and you’re like, Get me in for season two?

Honestly, the first thing that’s popping into my head is Yellowjackets. I loved that show so much. And one of my friends actually worked on it as a producing director on the first season. I love stuff like that…. I thought the music was awesome. I loved how dark and moody it was. 

The truth is, at this point, I feel so open. There’s a bunch of stuff that I would love to do but I feel really open to all types of possibilities.

Looking back for a sec, are you still talking to the girls from The Bold Type?

Yes. They are my sisters. Obviously. Katie [Stevens] was actually just here, visiting me from Nashville last week, and we FaceTimed with Aisha [Dee] because she’s in Australia. Yeah, I mean, I’m basically in daily contact with both of them.

That’s wonderful. That show was like a warm hug.

It was a really sweet show in that way and I’m so proud to have been a part of something that brought people comfort and joy. And to have gained two of my best friends in the world from that, what else can you ask for?

Is there anyone on The White Lotus set you particularly bonded with and feel like you’re gonna take forward as a new friend as well?

I made a few friends! Which, I always say, if you just meet one person that you really click with, that’s a win, but yeah, a few people that I’m really close with. Leo Woodall and I are really good friends; Adam DiMarco; we see Haley [Lu Richardson] all the time. Aubrey [Plaza]’s super busy, so I don’t see her very often. I just truly love every single person that I got to work with.

Michael Imperioli is a king. He’s just one of the kindest, smartest artists that I’ve been able to be on set with. [F.] Murray [Abraham] is such a legend, and Jennifer [Coolidge] of course. I truly could name every single person. Everybody added something really wonderful to the show on a character front, and also just as it applied to sort of being so far away from home for such a long period of time. We really did become a little family unit and that was really special.

You had so many wonderful collaborators, Mike and the rest of the cast. Is there anything you feel like you learned from this project? Either as an actor or just as a person, any lessons you’re taking away?

I’ve been thinking about it a lot, just because the last time I was really on a set in a big way was The Bold Type. And I did that for so many years. That was such a unique experience for me. I was in my mid-20s, and I was learning so much, and it was my first really big TV thing, so I’m always really grateful for that show because I feel like it helped me really get my feet under me.

And The White Lotus for me felt like a new moment. I felt sort of like a woman in a way that I hadn’t before. And I think I just took away from the experience…you know, Mike, the way that he operates, he’s so relaxed and he’s so free and open and he puts so much trust in the actors, which is such a wonderful feeling, because you feel safe to try things. It’s such a collaborative experience, and out of that comes a presence of mind that, for me, is something that I would love to try and keep finding, moving forward. I think he really facilitated an environment that made that possible, so that’s one of my main takeaways for sure.

I’m so intrigued that you said you felt like a woman. Is that because you’re playing a mom or just the slightly more serious subject matter?

I think it’s both of those things, and also, I’m just a bit older now. All of those factors played into how different of an experience it felt like for me. I really felt like I was growing up on The Bold Type, you know? And like I said, I’m so grateful that I had that opportunity to learn things because I was so nervous when I first found out that I had been cast in The White Lotus! It’s such a prestigious, wonderful thing to be a part of. I was really intimidated. And it was nice for me too, in the small moments, to be like, no, I’ve been on a set before, I know how this works, I know what it means when they say things! 

The first time I was ever on a set was for Gossip Girl, and I didn’t know anything! Nobody told me what anything meant, and there’s all this lingo that I’ve never heard, and I don’t know what the camera’s doing, and it was really overwhelming and scary. So for me to now find myself on a set and not feel like that anymore, it’s nice. It’s a nice feeling.

Is there anything that you’re hoping people take away from this show or your performance? Anything you’re excited for people to see?

In terms of stuff Daphne does, I really love episodes five and seven. I think the thing that’s so great about The White Lotus is that it’s not trying to teach anybody a lesson. It’s sort of offering up a situation and presenting it to the audience and letting them choose. I’m looking forward to hearing what other people take away from it on their own, more than anything.

Final question: What do you miss the most from Italy? Food? People? Weather?

Ooh, what do I miss the most? I think I miss the cacio e pepe, I miss the people, the beach, I mean, I miss the way that it smelled, the way that the grocery stores are there! I just loved everything about it. Take me back!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Photographer: @eliastahan

Hair: @cameron.rains

Makeup: @jentioseco

Styling: @thomascarterphillips