Mike White thought it would be funny to have Aubrey Plaza play a “normie”
According to Aubrey Plaza, Mike White didn't want her character to be someone who exhibited "extreme behaviors"
Aux News Plaza
As HBO’s The White Lotus gears up for a highly anticipated third season rumored to be set in Thailand, the internet is already aflutter with discussions about what new insufferable characters will descend upon the titular resort. If anything, The White Lotus alum Aubrey Plaza’s experience on the anthology indicates that creator Mike White absolutely has a plan. As Plaza recalls, White knew that when she joined the series’ universe he wanted her to play a very specific, recognizable kind of character.
“He kind of made a joke, but he said something along the lines of ‘I think it would be really funny if you played a normie,’” Plaza, who plays disillusioned wife Harper Spiller in the series, recalls in a new interview with The Los Angeles Times’ Tim Grierson. “There’s lots to dissect there, but I think what he meant was ‘I’m not going to cast you as a character that has some kind of extreme behaviors.’ I thought, ‘OK, well, nobody’s really a normie, are they?’”
Plaza’s point certainly lands, given Harper’s character arc in season 2 of the HBO favorite. A normie only on the surface, April’s coiffed aesthetic and entrepreneur husband can’t completely hide her penchant for cat-and-mouse mind games. Anyone who can navigate a strange, psychosexual quadrangle on vacation and still make it home with their peace of mind (and partner) doesn’t exactly deserve to be relegated to normie status. Perhaps ultimately, Plaza’s experience will open the floodgates of not-so-normie normies on the small screen (the fact that Plaza was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for the role doesn’t hurt).
17 Comments
Man, it’s been like forever since I had a vacation with a psychosexual quadrangle.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a vacation, period.
I read somewhere that psychosexual quadrangle vacations have been ruined by Gen Z
Same, nothing since the late 1980s. Damn.
Still have not forgiven Happiest Season for thinking they could just cast Aubrey Plaza as the third wheel in a love triangle like she was some normie
As much as I like Aubrey Plaza, I thought was miscast in that role, whatever White’s thought process there was. The problem isn’t that the character is a normie, it’s that the character is really boring when she’s not really unpleasant. And that’s a legitimate character type, but the result is that the character really sapped all the energy and charisma from Plaza. It negated everything that makes her such a fun and compelling performer. I mean, would the show have been noticeably different or worse if Plaza had been replaced in that role by any competent actress?That’s not to say that Plaza has to play an evil witch in everything she does (though that’s kind of an amusing thought). But “boring normie” does not really play to her strengths.
You’re wrong. Plaza was fantastic.
She should never be limited to evil witches.
I thought she was great for exactly the reason you don’t, actually. I think Plaza repressing her natural instincts to be weird or funny fit really well with a character who is trying to repress her utter dislike for the world she’s in and people she’s with. You could really feel that character’s discomfort and unease at every second.
Normie’s are people too!
She’s now a whore for the dairy industry’s animal torture and slaughter machine, trying to play some pathetic “ironic humor” hustle to aging millennials to get them to drink cow’s milk because it’s hipper. Fuck you Audrey, you phoney bitch.
For the love of god get laid.
What White actually meant was that he thought it would be funny if Plaza played the role like a guy with a good buddy named Cliff who spent all his time pounding beers in a Boston bar full of eccentrics.
Hey! Normie!
Now I want a remake of Cheers with Aubrey Plaza!
I admit, as a long-time weirdo, mutant, outsider douchebag type… use of the word “normie” makes me itchy and uncomfortable.
There’s probably a good essay on the word for someone to write. On your marks, get set, substack!
She’s having a moment.