The top producer of The White Lotus has blasted the composer of its theme song as a “f---ing asshole” amid a bitter split between the musician and the show’s bosses.
David Bernad, executive producer of the hit HBO show, broke his silence on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, telling how he and creator Mike White felt “hurt” by the collapse of their relationship with Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, and called him out for treating them like “morons.”
Speaking exclusively to co-hosts Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee, Bernad said it was “surprising” that De Veer had publicly gone after both him and White in an interview with The New York Times last week. In that interview, De Veer claimed he and White had a “rock ‘n’ roll band story”-type breakup and that he was “not coming back” for season four.
“Him doing that interview kind of blindsided us to be honest,” Bernad said. “Anytime you’re taking on a creative venture, there’s creative conversations. I think what was so surprising for us was that there was nothing interesting that happened in that experience other than us giving notes to a collaborator, which is the process in every creative venture.”
“As someone who kind of was there for every moment of that experience... you kind of read this interview and I’m like, ‘What the f--k is this guy talking about?‘” he added with a laugh.
The executive producer went on to acknowledge that De Veer is “an incredibly talented person” but claimed that he “would not listen to us and actually treat(ed) us like we were morons.”
“It was kind of hurtful because I think we went out of our way to be good collaborators to him,” Bernad said.
De Veer, who has won a total of three Creative Arts Emmys for his composing work on The White Lotus across the show’s first two seasons, told the Times: “It’s kind of weird right now because I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving. I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons; I wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock and whatever.”
Upon its Season 3 premiere, The White Lotus shocked with a new theme song that notably omitted the string of ulular “looloo” sounds popular with fans.
“I have, like, over 20 versions of that theme, with and without the ooh-loo-loo-loos,” De Veer told the Times. “But of course, in the 1:45 titles that’s allowed, there’s nothing from the other ones. That was kind of a risk, but we never talked about that.”
De Veer later released one such longer version of the song, featuring what he called the “uncut war cry ending.”
Though Bernad acknowledged that “there was this desire to make (the theme song) similar to the first two seasons,” he said that he and White discussed it with HBO and ultimately agreed to stick to the new sound.
He also explained that Emmy regulations limit the chances of an arrangement deemed too similar to its predecessors being nominated in the Emmys’ “Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music” category, which De Veer won for The White Lotus’ first season, but was not nominated for in its second.
“I’m very defensive of Mike—and I was there, I lived every experience,” he said. Of De Veer, he continued: “He’s a f---ing a--hole to go out in the press and make it all about himself, where there’s a thousand people who have worked really hard to make this show.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, De Veer said: “When Mike learned that I wasn’t coming back for Season 4, he didn’t handle it in a normal business manner... That is why I went public. And that is as much as I am allowed to say at this time. Everything that is happening right now is completely unnecessary, I didn’t start this feud and am simply defending myself.”
For all this and much more, listen to this week’s episode in full when it drops at midnight ET.
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