February 15, 2025 • 12 mins
The newest season of The White Lotus is set to hit our screens this week - and homegrown actress Morgana O'Reilly is right in the middle of the action.
While everyone else looks forward to another season of drama and intrigue in an exotic locale, O'Reilly's feeling the full range of emotions as her on-screen career takes a significant step forward.
She can reveal she got to experience 'amazing' environments and hotels as part of the season's luxury Thailand location.
"We were in these beautiful hotels and locations on these beaches and things like that...it's just daunting to see the kinds of juggernauts that you're working with."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is the Sunday Session. I'm Franchisca Rudkin with you
till midday and this music can only.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Mean one thing.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's back. The White Lotus returns to our screens tomorrow
for season three, but this time us Kiwis have far
more invested in the show than ever before, with our
very own Morgana O'Reilly cast as one of the characters.
We chatted to Morgana around this time last year after
she was announced in the show, but she couldn't tell
us any of the details. So she is back now
(00:40):
to fit us in on her character and the whole
experience of filming this mad show. Morgana O'Reilly, So great
to talk to you again. How are you great and great?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Feeling ahead of the release? It's tomorrow, Morgana O'Reilly in
the White Lotus. How excited are you? I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh my gosh, I'm excited. I'm probably not the same
kind of excited as everybody else, obviously, I'm a little
bit scared. I can't just watch it the way I
have the last two seasons be like yay. I'm like,
oh gosh, okay, there's me No, but I'm really excited.
It will be the full circle, you know, from the
(01:22):
first audition and then all there's been so many kind
of big wins and flag post moments along the way.
It'll be a really it'll bookend the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
And yeah, I have seen the first two episodes. I
don't think you've got anything to be scared about. Tell
us a little bit about your character, Pam.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Oh my goodness, you've seen the first look. You've seen
more than I have. I haven't even seen the first
two episodes. She is a health butler. She is Australian.
She is she's assigned to assist the Ratless Ratless family,
who headed by Jason Isaacs and Park Posey and their
(02:10):
three children. Yeah, so she organizes their wellness routine.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I don't want I don't want to tell anyone anything
about it because it's just so much fun watching everything unfold.
But this show is it's quite out there. It's a
little bit mad. What was it like being on set
filming it?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, on set was really it was great and that
felt that felt like a normal I was. I felt
really a comfortable in that space. Actually on set and
we're in these beautiful, beautiful hotels and locations on these
beaches and things like that, and sometimes you just feel like,
(02:58):
I mean, it's just daunting the kind of juggernauts in
which you're working with, you know, like the the welcome
scene in it, when you've got like Lisa from Black Pink,
she's just hanging around. She's so lovely and so sweet
and kind and humble. I have no idea that she's
basically Beyonce. I mean, like, yeah, it was a lot,
(03:21):
I tell you what, it was great. It was a
lot of things, a lot of feelings fluctuating between so
glad I'm here too, I don't belong here, and I
can't bear this, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
The hotel is insane you were living Is it right
that you were living there? I'm sure you mentioned that
to us before you were living there while you were filming.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, So, like we had, they were all living
and working at the Four Seasons in Kossimoi. So it
was like a really amazingly beautiful retirement home with lots
of young and healthy people who have lots of money.
All they all cast and crew. So it's glorious, how idyllic.
(04:06):
And then we also shot and pouquette at a couple
of different places there, and so we'd often live and
work in the in the hotel.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I wonder if it's ruined you a little bit that,
you know, you get an acting gig which also just
happens to be in a you know, in this incredible
sort of hotel resort. Next time someone puts you up,
you're going to be a bit like, oh is this that?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I know? It's so bad? I mean, you don't I
need to. I need to sometimes check how much I
talk about it, because I I didn't sort of even
click that at a certain level of hotel, it would
be crazy not to have your own private pool. I'm like,
what you get one of those? Oh now I can't
(04:46):
go back. I have to share it.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Was it relaxing having your family? I know that your
family came up at one point, and I think the
kids came as well. Was it relaxing having them there?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Or that's so wonderful? But then you know, like it
was actually and I was wonderful to have them there
because A my husband, you know, he's a director, so
it was really cool for him to because we're working
in this space. So it was this amazing hotel, but
it was also an active film set, which is just
like an absolute treat when you're in this industry because
(05:16):
you get to go to a hotel, but you get
to also like, you know, I'll be swimming in the pool,
but over there is second unit just filming a couple
of cutaway shots of some things that can catch you,
like beautiful foliage and the ocean, things like that, so
you get to sort of see a film crew over there,
or you know, the kids will be playing madly in
(05:36):
the pool, in the big shared pool with the other
kids from the crew, and then you know a third,
fourth or fifth ad would run down frantically and go
please be quiet, please be quiet, because they're filming like
fool giez. Yeah, it was great, so great.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Our screen industry here in New Zealand, it's amazing. But
was it quite a different experience to other shows you've
worked on when you get to work on something, you know,
a smash show like this, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yes, yes, well no, I mean it's a multifaceted answer.
I guess my point of view being on set is
I felt really prepared for that bit, which was good.
But then of course the resources in other areas was
definitely a lot greater than I had experienced before. I
(06:29):
also think, you know, to clarify, the New Zealand industry
is kind of multifaceted as well. There is an international
film industry that comes and shoots in New Zealand that
often hires New Zealand crew and a smattering the bare
minimum New Zealand cast. And then there is the New
(06:51):
Zealand TV and film industry which scrapes by as much
as I can and dare I say, is really on
struggle street at the moment to make stuff. So whether
you're you might be shooting something in New Zealand, but
they can be leagues apart, whether you're shooting the Luminaries
versus something for SPP, so it's profoundly different.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, how big a break for you is this? Career wise?
Are you bracing yourself a potential exposure? I mean, we've
always known that you're brilliant here, but you know this
is sort of on a global scale, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
MORGANA, I don't know, you know what, like it's still
it feels like a it feels like I'm on a
big cruise ship. It's moving slow and steady and strongly.
I'm currently, you know, the lead in a six part
thriller's areas for Paramount, which is Heaven, and I was
(07:53):
essentially offered that role, and I don't think that that
would have happened in that way without this behind me,
which is which is great. And then once it comes out,
you know, I have sort of raising myself for many
different realities and all of which I can deal with,
all of which I'm happy for. There's a chance that
(08:16):
I kind of get Nobody really pays too much attention.
There's so many casts, so many characters, and so maybe
it's just a really great thing on my CV and
it gives me a little bit more money in the world,
you know, and makes it easier for other productions to
get people to give them money to make it because
(08:37):
they can say, well, we've got more Guanner and she's
been in White Lotus, so that's nice to help out
other things. Who knows some interesting also like it. I
could get absolutely ripped apart online. I don't know. I'm
preparing for lots of things.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I don't think that's going to happen. But that's really
interesting what you say. There's lots of little silver linings,
isn't it That might not be obvious. You're not necessarily going,
oh yeah, it's going to be great. You know, people
are going to recognize me more and know who I am,
and it's going to be easy to get jobs. Is
actually it can actually trickle down a lot different ways.
It could be really grateful previous shows that you've been
a part of as well, you know, bringing them to
light again.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's a real that warms my heart majorly with all that.
You know, I'm going to go up to the Premier
year and and all this stuff, and maybe this is
the key we in me. But at a certain point
things feel really indulgent and they feel like I'm vying
for the spotlight that I don't deserve. But the you know,
(09:35):
the oxytocin countenance to that quartersole spike is that it
lifts up everybody and everything that I am currently working
on and have work done. And so that feels nice.
That's great. Let's do that.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Tell me a little bit about what you are doing
in Australia at the moment.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I'm doing a series called Playing Gracie Darling and it's oh,
it's so cool, and especially because I just if I
saw this synopsis, I was like, I would be so
all aboard because it's a mystery series thriller but with
a little bit of smattering of ghost story spookiness. Like
(10:16):
there's it's a bit scary, not in a horror movie sense,
but in a thriller sense. So it's a bit Mayor
of East Town. It's a bit sharp objects, but nice
ohasty stuff and some like flashbacks to the late nineties.
Oh yeah, come home.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Say good and look just before you, guy, I want
to touch base with you on where Stories about My
Body is at, because we've spoken to you about that
before turning it into a film. I know that there's
been a bit of crowdfunding going. Have you had any
time to work on that at all?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Oh my goodness. We are so close to finishing the
edit and it's going to go into post production and
there is music being made. There is all these wheels
in motion, which like that something like that which has
been such an art baby, not just for me but
for my husband and all the people that are involved
(11:11):
are our friends and dear creatives who have given their
time and energy and incredible talents. So it's really close
to being a little finished and then who knows that
we have to find somewhere to put it. But yes,
this year, I reckon.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Oh look, one step at a time. Can you do
me a favorite Morgana when you turn up at that premiere?
Can you just say, oh, Hi, I'm more Gana and
I deserve to be here?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Oh, Kyota, Yes, I will, I will, I'll be I'll
be clutching my pearls looking around the room, and I
to be here.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I'm Morgana and I be.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Hi, Jennifer Cool, It's nice to bet more Ganna, and
I deserve to be here. It's not my last name.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
You need to work.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You need to work on that. But look, hey, thank
you so much for your time. It's always really great
to catch up with you and look forward to catching
up with you throughout the year. Thanks you, Jessica. Don't
forget that at the White Lotus. Season three starts on
meon tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is the Sunday Session. I'm Franchisca Rudkin with you
till midday and this music can only.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Mean one thing.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's back. The White Lotus returns to our screens tomorrow
for season three, but this time us Kiwis have far
more invested in the show than ever before, with our
very own Morgana O'Reilly cast as one of the characters.
We chatted to Morgana around this time last year after
she was announced in the show, but she couldn't tell
us any of the details. So she is back now
(00:40):
to fit us in on her character and the whole
experience of filming this mad show. Morgana O'Reilly, So great
to talk to you again. How are you great and great?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Feeling ahead of the release? It's tomorrow, Morgana O'Reilly in
the White Lotus. How excited are you? I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh my gosh, I'm excited. I'm probably not the same
kind of excited as everybody else, obviously, I'm a little
bit scared. I can't just watch it the way I
have the last two seasons be like yay. I'm like,
oh gosh, okay, there's me No, but I'm really excited.
It will be the full circle, you know, from the
(01:22):
first audition and then all there's been so many kind
of big wins and flag post moments along the way.
It'll be a really it'll bookend the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
And yeah, I have seen the first two episodes. I
don't think you've got anything to be scared about. Tell
us a little bit about your character, Pam.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Oh my goodness, you've seen the first look. You've seen
more than I have. I haven't even seen the first
two episodes. She is a health butler. She is Australian.
She is she's assigned to assist the Ratless Ratless family,
who headed by Jason Isaacs and Park Posey and their
(02:10):
three children. Yeah, so she organizes their wellness routine.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I don't want I don't want to tell anyone anything
about it because it's just so much fun watching everything unfold.
But this show is it's quite out there. It's a
little bit mad. What was it like being on set
filming it?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, on set was really it was great and that
felt that felt like a normal I was. I felt
really a comfortable in that space. Actually on set and
we're in these beautiful, beautiful hotels and locations on these
beaches and things like that, and sometimes you just feel like,
(02:58):
I mean, it's just daunting the kind of juggernauts in
which you're working with, you know, like the the welcome
scene in it, when you've got like Lisa from Black Pink,
she's just hanging around. She's so lovely and so sweet
and kind and humble. I have no idea that she's
basically Beyonce. I mean, like, yeah, it was a lot,
(03:21):
I tell you what, it was great. It was a
lot of things, a lot of feelings fluctuating between so
glad I'm here too, I don't belong here, and I
can't bear this, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
The hotel is insane you were living Is it right
that you were living there? I'm sure you mentioned that
to us before you were living there while you were filming.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, So, like we had, they were all living
and working at the Four Seasons in Kossimoi. So it
was like a really amazingly beautiful retirement home with lots
of young and healthy people who have lots of money.
All they all cast and crew. So it's glorious, how idyllic.
(04:06):
And then we also shot and pouquette at a couple
of different places there, and so we'd often live and
work in the in the hotel.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I wonder if it's ruined you a little bit that,
you know, you get an acting gig which also just
happens to be in a you know, in this incredible
sort of hotel resort. Next time someone puts you up,
you're going to be a bit like, oh is this that?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
I know? It's so bad? I mean, you don't I
need to. I need to sometimes check how much I
talk about it, because I I didn't sort of even
click that at a certain level of hotel, it would
be crazy not to have your own private pool. I'm like,
what you get one of those? Oh now I can't
(04:46):
go back. I have to share it.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Was it relaxing having your family? I know that your
family came up at one point, and I think the
kids came as well. Was it relaxing having them there?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Or that's so wonderful? But then you know, like it
was actually and I was wonderful to have them there
because A my husband, you know, he's a director, so
it was really cool for him to because we're working
in this space. So it was this amazing hotel, but
it was also an active film set, which is just
like an absolute treat when you're in this industry because
(05:16):
you get to go to a hotel, but you get
to also like, you know, I'll be swimming in the pool,
but over there is second unit just filming a couple
of cutaway shots of some things that can catch you,
like beautiful foliage and the ocean, things like that, so
you get to sort of see a film crew over there,
or you know, the kids will be playing madly in
(05:36):
the pool, in the big shared pool with the other
kids from the crew, and then you know a third,
fourth or fifth ad would run down frantically and go
please be quiet, please be quiet, because they're filming like
fool giez. Yeah, it was great, so great.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Our screen industry here in New Zealand, it's amazing. But
was it quite a different experience to other shows you've
worked on when you get to work on something, you know,
a smash show like this, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yes, yes, well no, I mean it's a multifaceted answer.
I guess my point of view being on set is
I felt really prepared for that bit, which was good.
But then of course the resources in other areas was
definitely a lot greater than I had experienced before. I
(06:29):
also think, you know, to clarify, the New Zealand industry
is kind of multifaceted as well. There is an international
film industry that comes and shoots in New Zealand that
often hires New Zealand crew and a smattering the bare
minimum New Zealand cast. And then there is the New
(06:51):
Zealand TV and film industry which scrapes by as much
as I can and dare I say, is really on
struggle street at the moment to make stuff. So whether
you're you might be shooting something in New Zealand, but
they can be leagues apart, whether you're shooting the Luminaries
versus something for SPP, so it's profoundly different.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, how big a break for you is this? Career wise?
Are you bracing yourself a potential exposure? I mean, we've
always known that you're brilliant here, but you know this
is sort of on a global scale, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
MORGANA, I don't know, you know what, like it's still
it feels like a it feels like I'm on a
big cruise ship. It's moving slow and steady and strongly.
I'm currently, you know, the lead in a six part
thriller's areas for Paramount, which is Heaven, and I was
(07:53):
essentially offered that role, and I don't think that that
would have happened in that way without this behind me,
which is which is great. And then once it comes out,
you know, I have sort of raising myself for many
different realities and all of which I can deal with,
all of which I'm happy for. There's a chance that
(08:16):
I kind of get Nobody really pays too much attention.
There's so many casts, so many characters, and so maybe
it's just a really great thing on my CV and
it gives me a little bit more money in the world,
you know, and makes it easier for other productions to
get people to give them money to make it because
(08:37):
they can say, well, we've got more Guanner and she's
been in White Lotus, so that's nice to help out
other things. Who knows some interesting also like it. I
could get absolutely ripped apart online. I don't know. I'm
preparing for lots of things.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I don't think that's going to happen. But that's really
interesting what you say. There's lots of little silver linings,
isn't it That might not be obvious. You're not necessarily going,
oh yeah, it's going to be great. You know, people
are going to recognize me more and know who I am,
and it's going to be easy to get jobs. Is
actually it can actually trickle down a lot different ways.
It could be really grateful previous shows that you've been
a part of as well, you know, bringing them to
light again.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That's a real that warms my heart majorly with all that.
You know, I'm going to go up to the Premier
year and and all this stuff, and maybe this is
the key we in me. But at a certain point
things feel really indulgent and they feel like I'm vying
for the spotlight that I don't deserve. But the you know,
(09:35):
the oxytocin countenance to that quartersole spike is that it
lifts up everybody and everything that I am currently working
on and have work done. And so that feels nice.
That's great. Let's do that.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Tell me a little bit about what you are doing
in Australia at the moment.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I'm doing a series called Playing Gracie Darling and it's oh,
it's so cool, and especially because I just if I
saw this synopsis, I was like, I would be so
all aboard because it's a mystery series thriller but with
a little bit of smattering of ghost story spookiness. Like
(10:16):
there's it's a bit scary, not in a horror movie sense,
but in a thriller sense. So it's a bit Mayor
of East Town. It's a bit sharp objects, but nice
ohasty stuff and some like flashbacks to the late nineties.
Oh yeah, come home.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Say good and look just before you, guy, I want
to touch base with you on where Stories about My
Body is at, because we've spoken to you about that
before turning it into a film. I know that there's
been a bit of crowdfunding going. Have you had any
time to work on that at all?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Oh my goodness. We are so close to finishing the
edit and it's going to go into post production and
there is music being made. There is all these wheels
in motion, which like that something like that which has
been such an art baby, not just for me but
for my husband and all the people that are involved
(11:11):
are our friends and dear creatives who have given their
time and energy and incredible talents. So it's really close
to being a little finished and then who knows that
we have to find somewhere to put it. But yes,
this year, I reckon.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Oh look, one step at a time. Can you do
me a favorite Morgana when you turn up at that premiere?
Can you just say, oh, Hi, I'm more Gana and
I deserve to be here?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Oh, Kyota, Yes, I will, I will, I'll be I'll
be clutching my pearls looking around the room, and I
to be here.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I'm Morgana and I be.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Hi, Jennifer Cool, It's nice to bet more Ganna, and
I deserve to be here. It's not my last name.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
You need to work.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You need to work on that. But look, hey, thank
you so much for your time. It's always really great
to catch up with you and look forward to catching
up with you throughout the year. Thanks you, Jessica. Don't
forget that at the White Lotus. Season three starts on
meon tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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