Natalie Cole; Mike White; Carl Boudreaux.Photo:Robert Voets/CBS via Getty
Robert Voets/CBS via Getty
During a dinner scene at the Thailand resort, cameras caught a glimpse ofSurvivor’sNatalie Coleand Carl Boudreaux playing hotel guests at dinner. Explaining how creatorMike Whitechose them for the cameo, Cole toldEntertainment Weeklythat they first had to settle their beef.
“The fact that he could look beyond the way he felt about me in Fiji and ask me to come do a part speaks volumes about him as a person,” she said in a recent interview with the outlet. “Initially, he thought he was never going to speak to me again!”
White competed with Cole and Boudreaux onSurvivorin 2018, but she recalled “feuding” with one of White’s “best friends” Jeremy Crawford, leading to tension with the famed filmmaker. White ultimately voted Cole off the show, but they later made amends.
“I ran into him at Natalia [Azoqa]’s wedding and he did everything but look at me,” she recalled. “When we finally caught each other’s eyes, I waved at him, and oh my god, he ran across the room and threw himself into a hug with me and said, ‘I thought you were mad at me!’ And I said, ‘No, when I first came off [the show] I was, but it’s a game, and I recognize that, and I’m cool.”
(L-R) Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux in The White Lotus.MAX
MAX
In the months following, the Grammy-winner said she kept in contact with White and congratulated him on his Emmy wins forThe White Lotus,which is when he brought up a possible role in the show.
“We had conversations, and then he said, ‘If I get a season 3, you think you’d come be on it?'” Cole continued. “I said, ‘Sure,’ but I didn’t think he was serious, right?”
Skeptical, Cole, who was not previously a viewer ofThe White Lotus,said she figured White would reach back out if he meant it — and he did.
“I would never call, but Mike called, or texted me, actually, and was like, ‘Remember what we talked about — you being in the show if I got a season 3?'” she explained. “And then I said, ‘Well, wait a minute, Mike. It was kind of raunchy in season 2.’ I was concerned about it being so graphic with sex organs and all of that.”
She shared that White called season 3 more “about death” than sex, so she agreed.
“And then he looped Carl [Boudreaux] in and told me Carl was going to play my husband,” she revealed. “I said, ‘Okay, so there’s going to be some humor to this.'”
“I’m the type of person that I’ve always been, so he brought mySurvivorcharacter back to life,” she added. “I was very dismissive, ‘Why are you talking to me?’ Carl is a little bit more quiet than me, I’m the aggressive and outspoken one, and that lent itself to [bringing back our]Survivorthing.”
Carl Boudreaux and Natalie Cole.MAX
In the episode one scene,Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda notices Cole and Boudreaux, a wealthy couple, being seated at the hotel restaurant. They stood out to Belinda because, as Cole noted, they were “two Black people … and they weren’t staff!”
“I had way more lines than Carl, and I wanted him to speak up because Mike also said we could improvise a bit,” she remembered. “I was trying to help Carl but he’s laid back and he continued to be.”
As for the overall experience, Cole said she enjoyed spending time with herSurvivorfriends and getting to know the main cast members when cameras went down.
“The location was absolutely beautiful, the food was good,” she said of Thailand, proceeding to answer the question allSurvivorfans likely wondered: “We talked about the jacket, but it wasn’t a part of my lines.”
This is not the first time White has brought his fellowSurvivoralums ontoThe White Lotus.Alec Merlino, Angelina Keeley and Kara Kay have also made cameos in past seasons of the hit show.
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New episodes ofThe White Lotusair Sundays on HBO and Max.
source: people.com
