Aubrey Plaza Said It Was an “Honor” to Channel Her Inner Monica Vitti in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 Episode 3

A few guests go off-resort in The White Lotus Season 2 Episode 3 “Bull Elephants.” Daphne (Meghann Fahy) claims she wants to take a day trip to Noto for the shopping and Harper (Aubrey Plaza) reluctantly tags along for what she thinks is a short term commitment. When the ladies arrive at a gorgeous villa in the iconic Sicilian town, Daphne reveals she’s planned a sleepover for them. Harper is on edge being away from her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe), but Daphne introduces Harper to a whole new world view. Daphne, it seems, likes to play mind games with her husband as a power play and believes that girls should enjoy themselves as much as the men do.

Between revealing conversations, wine, and gummies, Harper gets a new glimpse of herself. The buttoned-down lawyer discovers herself as the object of every man’s attention in a shot that is a direct reference to Monica Vitti in La Ventura. Plaza told Decider that as a “film nerd,” it was “an honor to get to pretend to be Monica Vitti in some weird, bizarre way.”

Plaza revealed that they shot the sequence on location in Noto and that it was one of the first sequences the cinematographer showed her when they arrived there. She admitted to being familiar with the shot from La Ventura, but she watched it a lot in preparation for Harper’s big moment.

So why give Harper, the uptight American lawyer struggling to connect physically with her new money husband, this particular Vitti shot to recreate? “The scene, you know in the context of White Lotus, means a lot of things,” Plaza said.

“Harper is, she’s such an American character in a lot of ways. She kind of represents this kind of neurosis,” Plaza said, noting that Harper isn’t the type of person who “works” in Italy. “She’s not used to the machismo.”

“I think also the storyline for her and Ethan and Daphne and Cameron is a lot about sexual politics.”

While the girls are having emotional conversations and shopping sprees in Noto, their husbands are drinking, doing drugs, and flirting with escort Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and her pal Mia (Beatrice Grannò). Harper suspects something is amiss, and even though Ethan ultimately does not cheat on her, he leaves her calls and messages unanswered.

“I think Harper’s struggling with her own sexuality and desires, and her own conflicts about being in this marriage for so long and feeling like they’ve hit a dead spot,” Plaza said.

“So, I think it’s an Italian kind of thing, but I think there’s a lot of it that represents kind of her inner struggles as well and kind of like, as a woman in general and as a wife.”