Laura Dern walked the Cannes Film Festival’s famous red-carpeted steps this week — not as herself, but as a character in The White Lotus, filming scenes on May 26 just days after the real festival wrapped. Dressed in a black gown adorned with baby pink feathers, Dern was photographed alongside co-stars Chris Messina, Marissa Long, and Charlie Hall as production on the HBO drama’s fourth season moved into its most publicly visible phase yet.
The new season is being filmed along the French Riviera, with key locations including Cannes, Saint-Tropez, and Monaco, with some production also taking place in Paris. The Airelles Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez serves as the White Lotus du Cap, while the historic Hôtel Martinez on the Croisette stands in as the White Lotus Cannes — the first time the show has centred its story around two properties simultaneously. The official synopsis confirms the season follows a new group of White Lotus guests and employees over a week set during the Cannes Film Festival.
Dern’s presence on set carries its own backstory. HBO confirmed on April 28, 2026 that the Oscar-winning actress joined the season to replace Helena Bonham Carter, who left the production abruptly during its first week of filming. Bonham Carter’s character was scrapped entirely, with creator Mike White writing a brand new role specifically for Dern. HBO’s statement said that, just after filming began, “it had become apparent that the character which Mike White created for Helena Bonham Carter did not align once on set.”
The casting is a reunion more than fifteen years in the making. White and Dern first worked together in 2007 on the film Year of the Dog, and then co-created the critically admired HBO series Enlightened starting in 2011. Dern also made an uncredited cameo in the show’s second season, voicing the estranged wife of Michael Imperioli’s character.
The season carries one of the franchise’s most expansive casts, including Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, Kumail Nanjiani, Rosie Perez, Sandra Bernhard, Heather Graham, Max Greenfield, Chloe Bennet, and Alexander Ludwig, among others. Survivor 50 contestant Charlie Davis was also photographed filming at Cannes, alongside Marissa Long and Charlie Hall. During the Survivor finale, White revealed that Davis and fellow contestant Kamilla Karthigesu would appear in cameo roles — continuing White’s tradition of casting players from his reality television appearances in the drama.
There is no confirmed premiere date, and given that Season 3 took six months to film, Season 4 is unlikely to reach screens before 2027. Three-time Emmy winner Cristobal Tapia de Veer, who scored the first three seasons, will not return, citing creative differences with White that intensified over the Season 3 theme.
