Mike White wasn’t happy with White Lotus composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer for quitting the show and then speaking publicly about it. In an interview with Howard Stern Tuesday morning, the HBO show’s creator slammed the music maker for speaking to the press about his exit, claiming he had “never kissed somebody’s ass so hard” before Tapia de Veer left.
“I knew he wasn’t a team player and that he wanted to do it his way. I was thrown that he would go to the New York Times to shit on me and the show three days before the finale,” White said on the SiriusXM show. “It was kind of a bitch move.”
“I honestly don’t know what happened, except now I’m reading his interviews because he decided to do some P.R. campaign about him leaving the show,” he added. “In reading the interviews, I just realized… I just don’t think he respected me. I think he basically wants people to know he’s edgy and dark and I’m… I watch reality TV.”
Last week, Tapia de Veer told The New York Times that he had creative disagreements with White since Season One. “When I got the script, I wasn’t sure that it was something for me, because it was very well written, but there’s a reality TV kind of vibe going on, and comedic,” Tapia de Veer told the Times. (Perhaps White took this as a dig since he was on The Amazing Race two times and on a season of Survivor.)
Tapia de Veer said he quit after he and White had their “last fight forever.” In speaking to Stern, White claimed the pair “never even really fought… he said we feuded. I don’t think I ever had a fight with him, except maybe some emails.” He claimed that they’d “go through the process” of taking each other’s notes together for the first two seasons, but that changed for the third season.
“I guess he just didn’t respect me,” White said, later adding: “By the time the third season came around he’d won Emmys and had his song go viral, so he just did not want to go through the process anymore. He didn’t want to get notes from me.”
To the Times, Tapia de Veer said the show’s theme music was originally “a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe” and “nice background music,” as opposed to the now-viral theme song of the show.
“He always had this contemptuous smirk on his face whenever he was dealing with me,” White told Stern. “I think he thought I was just a chimp or something. I don’t know.”
White Lotus‘ theme song made headlines after fans shared their discontent with the slightly changed version. Speaking to Rolling Stone, White Lotus‘ music supervisor Gabe Hilfer, who joined for Season Two, said the uproar meant people cared about the show.
“The song changes every season, and it reflects the tone, mood, and the themes of the season,” Hilfer said. “The theme songs for the first two seasons were a little bit more related creatively, but they’re totally different songs. Season Three is about spirituality, and it’s meant to be reflective of that. I think that people are just noticing it more because it’s considerably different than last season.”
From Rolling Stone US
