The White Lotus creator Mike White is firing back at the show’s composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, who publicly aired his grievances just days before the Season 3 finale.
“I was thrown that he would go to The New York Times to s--- on me and the show three days before the finale. It was kind of a b---h move,” Mike White said Tuesday on The Howard Stern Show.
Tapia de Veer revealed to the Times last week that he had quit the hit show after “hysterical” clashes with White and producers, a move White labeled as a “PR campaign.”
White, who directed and wrote the show, denied serious fights with Tapia de Veer, though he acknowledged tension over creative differences: “It was basically me giving him notes. I don’t think he liked to go through the process of getting notes from me, or wanting revisions, because he didn’t respect me.”
Tapia de Veer, for his part, had likened White to “the guitar player” who “doesn’t understand the singer at all,” in his interview with the Times.
Tapia de Veer’s work on The White Lotus, especially the score for the title sequence which reflected each of the three seasons’ locations and themes, were wildly popular and became an integral part of the show, winning the composer three Emmys.
White suggested Tapia de Veer’s success got to his head when the third season went into production, claiming the composer didn’t want to “go through the process” and attend sessions.
“He always had this contemptuous smirk on his face whenever he was dealing with me, so I just think he thought I was a chimp or something,” White told Howard Stern.
Tapia de Veer himself admitted, “Maybe I was being unprofessional,” in the Times interview. But he argued his scores had given White “those Emmys, people going crazy.”
White described Tapia de Veer as “very talented,” before quipping, “I’ve never kissed somebody’s a-- so hard to just get him to lead that horse to water.”
“Have fun with whatever you’re doing next,” he said.
