The White Lotus star Carrie Coon has explained her mindset going into her character’s now-viral sprint scene from the season three finale.
*Warning — Major spoilers for ‘The White Lotus’ season three finale ahead*
In the climax of the HBO show’s season three finale — released on Sunday — Coon’s Laurie and Kate (Leslie Bibb) accompany their celebrity friend Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) outside the White Lotus resort to take photos with the owners, Sritala (Lek Patravadi) and her husband, Jim (Scott Glenn).
While the group is posing for pictures, Walton Goggins’s Rick spots an opportunity to enact revenge on Jim, whom he believes killed his father. As he walks up to Jim, he manages to steal the gun from Jim’s coat pocket before firing a couple of rounds into the old man’s chest.
Immediately after the gun goes off, Laurie makes a mad dash to safety with Jaclyn and Kate trailing behind.
The scene has become an instant hit with fans, who’ve not only praised Coon for her impressive speed but have also found humor in her character’s clear focus on self-preservation.
“Not Carrie Coon delivering that Emmy-worthy monologue about friendship only to leave them to die once the shooting started lmao,” one X user quipped.
“Okay but could we actually find out what Laurie/Carrie Coon’s 40 time is?? She is MOVING,” added another.
Speaking to Variety in a new interview about the fan-favorite moment, Coon shared that her speedy getaway was based on personal instinct rather than any particular directing note.
Not Carrie Coon delivering that Emmy-worthy monologue about friendship only to leave them to die once the shooting started lmao #TheWhiteLotus pic.twitter.com/joee9JQwl2
— xule (@20051628lch) April 7, 2025
“There wasn’t direction,” she revealed. “I knew the gunshot was going to happen, and we were going to run into the bushes, essentially.”
Coon, 44, added that she pulled on her experience living in America, where gun violence is among the highest in the world.
“Look, I’m an American and I’m a New Yorker,” she said, “and if you think I don’t know where the exits are in any building I’m in, then you’re not paying attention to the news. I thought, what would a person do? A person would f***ing run, would book it, and I’m fast.”
The Ohio-born actor is a former collegiate athlete for the University of Mount Union. While she was recruited to play soccer for the school, she also ran track and field. In 2000, she placed second at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships with a 400-meter dash time of 59.36 seconds, according to Runner’s World.
“I’m not as fast as I used to be!” Coon acknowledged. “Some polite Thai workers were kind of scampering through in the background. I was like, ‘No, no, you need to have some Americans sprinting and hitting the deck, and jumping in the lagoon. The Americans are not playing. They know what this means!’”
In a three-star review of the latest White Lotus season finale, The Independent’s Adam White found it to be “a violent end to a bad season.”
“Rumors of cast fallouts and creative clashes make sense once you see the show’s third season in its entirety,” he wrote, “with this climax being a mixed bag of total genius and crushing disappointment.”
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