Mike White Responds To ‘White Lotus’ Composer Drama

It looks like what happened in Thailand did not stay in Thailand. Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the composer behind the eerie score of HBO’s The White Lotus, recently revealed to the New York Times that he had quit the show after three seasons. The reason? Apparently, creator Mike White acted like a diva and they’d been butting heads throughout production. But White isn’t so sure he’d describe their creative differences the same way.

On Tuesday, April 8, White called into The Howard Stern Show and responded to Tapia de Veer’s recent interview and accusations. “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,” White said. “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.” I mean, that’s sort of true. During the interview, Tapia de Veer described his style as “super dark and edgy” while White had more of a “chill, sexy” vibe in mind when it came to his vision for the music — another alleged point of contention between the two.

But it appears that White doesn’t remember there being any outright arguments. “I don’t think I ever had a fight with him, except for maybe some emails… 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,” White continued. “I knew he wasn’t a team player and that he wanted to do it his way. I was thrown that he would, like, go to the New York Times to shit on me and the show three days before the finale,” he said. “It was kind of a bitch move.”

Maybe, White appeared to speculate, the success had gone to the composer’s head. “He’d won Emmys and he had his song go viral, so he didn’t want to go through the process anymore…” White said. “He would always look at me with this contemptuous smirk on his face whenever he was dealing with me because I just think he thought I was a chimp or something.” Still, the show’s creator admits that Tapia de Veer “is very talented.” The man did give us those hypnotic ooh-loo-loo-loos, after all.

No matter what storylines White is dreaming up for season four (maybe some workplace drama between two dueling creatives… ) all I’m really hoping for is a continuation of the tense, spooky, anxiety-inducing music. Or maybe White can fully embrace his reality TV passion and book Dorit Kemsley to make some beats. Whoever picks up the phone first.