‘White Lotus’ Stars Talk Working With BLACKPINK’s LISA on Her Acting Debut: ‘Plain and Simple Natural’

Even stars get starstruck. When Billboard caught up with White Lotus season three cast member Tayme Thapthimthong on the red carpet at Sunday night’s (Sept. 14) Emmy Awards, the actor who portrayed soft-spoken security guard Gaitok wasn’t afraid to admit that taking on his most high-profile role to date alongside K-pop royalty LISA from BLACKPINK was a bit anxiety-producing.

“Working with LISA was amazing, I was extremely star-struck in the beginning when I met her at the cast dinner,” he said. “She’s so nice. Over the seven months that we filmed together we just got to become such good friends. And it’s always nice to reunite with her, whether it be in Thailand or here.”

Asked to name his favorite LISA songs, Thapthimthong chose the Future collab “Fxck Up the World” and her Tyla team-up, “When I’m With You,” while explaining that there was also plenty of music on set during filming. The pair shared a lot of scenes together in the show, and he said LISA often brought her portable speaker to the green room so they could jam out to their favorite Afrobeats songs, which, of course, included a lot of Tyla, as well as Burna Boy and WizKid.

Another one of LISA’s co-stars, Natasha Rothwell, also chatted up the K-pop superstar’s acting chops at the Emmys — where the show was nominated for 23 Primetime Emmys, but went home with just one win, for original main title theme music — where she answered Billboard‘s questions alongside co-star Dom Hetrakul. 

While Rothwell also called the rapper/singer’s work “amazing,” with Hetrakul praising LISA as “very talented,” nodding to the singer’s “years” of training in the K-pop world as preparation for the role. “It’s her first debut in her acting and [she’s just] plain and simple natural. Just seamless,” he said.

Watch Billboard‘s chat with Thapthimthong above and Rothwell below.