The White Lotus creator Mike White is striking back at composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer‘s claims about fights over the Season 3 theme music, calling the composer’s suggestions of a feud “a bitch move.”
White Lotus composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer has said season three of the HBO show will be his last in a revealing interview with The New York Times.
Triple Emmy winner Tapia de Veer recently told The New York Times that he won’t be returning to The White Lotus for Season Four after the show’s wildly popular theme music was altered at White’s insistence. The composer said prolonged creative clashes with White reached a peak during production of the third season.
In an interview with Howard Stern today, White responded, “I honestly don’t know what happened, except now I’m reading his interviews because he decides to do some PR campaign about him leaving the show. I don’t think he respected me. He wants people to know that he’s edgy and dark and I’m, I don’t know, like I watch reality TV.”
White continued, “We never really even fought. He says we feuded. I don’t think I ever had a fight with him – except for maybe some emails. 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. I knew he wasn’t a team player and that he wanted to do it his way. I was thrown that he would go to the New York Times to shit on me and the show three days before the finale. It was kind of a bitch move.”
Said White, “By the time the third season came around, he’d won Emmys and he had his song go viral, he didn’t want to go through the process with me, he didn’t want to go to sessions. He would always look at me with this contemptuous smirk on his face like he thought I was a chimp or something … he’s definitely making a big deal out of a creative difference.”
After Stern said, “You’re the genius behind this thing. Why quit a hit show because you got some notes and some differences? Just work it out,” White responded, “He is very talented. [But] I’ve never kissed somebody’s ass so hard to just get him to – to lead that horse to water. Have fun with whatever you’re doing next.”
