Jennifer Coolidge may not be appearing in the current season of The White Lotus – but her presence is very much felt.

For obvious reasons, Jen’s character, Tanya – who appeared in the first two iterations of the award-winning anthology show – did not return for the third run, although she is still at the forefront of the action in some ways, as Belinda and Gary (played by Natasha Rothwell and Jon Gries) crossed paths at the beginning of the season.

And while Jen has made no secret of how gutted she was to discover her character’s fate, she has stuck with The White Lotus as a viewer.

“When I heard that Mike [White, the show’s creator and Jennifer’s friend] was doing another White Lotus in Thailand, I was sort of thinking, ‘What could Mike possibly come up with? What could Mike White come up with that was sort of, you know, top all these sort of weird, you know, storylines he has?’,” she told E! News, when asked for her thoughts on “that brother scene that has the whole internet talking”.

“And he has topped it,” she continued.

Jennifer added: “He comes up with something, like I can’t think of. This is sort of a thing that people would be talking about for a very long time – and you know what I’m talking about. And that’s Mike White for you.”

Looking ahead to the finale, Jennifer is also still holding out hope that her character’s husband Greg goes “down in flames” and finally meets his comeuppance.

“I don’t know what Mike has planned for him, but I don’t want him to have a good life,” she claimed. “You know, something terrible needs to happen to Greg, don’t you think?”

The White Lotus has been a major part of a real career renaissance for Jennifer, leading to her winning not one but two Emmys.

In 2023, she admitted that she almost didn’t go for the role of Tanya at all, admitting she had been “depressed” and “not in the mood” when the part first came her way.

The White Lotus concludes on Monday 7 April on Sky and Now in the UK.