Why The White Lotus Season 3 Replaced The Original Chloe Actress With Charlotte Le Bon

Don't hang out poolside with any beautiful and mysterious women if you're behind on "The White Lotus." This article contains spoilers for season 3 episode 6, "Denials."

Mike White's globe-trotting anthology series "The White Lotus" always assembles a group of rich weirdos to play in whatever international sandbox White chooses for each season, and in the current third season, those rich weirdos are causing trouble in Thailand at one of the fictional White Lotus hotels. One major character in season 3, Chloe, isn't actually a guest; she actually lives nearby with her boyfriend Gary, played by Jon Gries (who we, the audience, know as Greg Hunt, an evil guy from the show's first two seasons). Chloe is played by Charlotte Le Bon, a French Canadian actress and model, but that character was originally played by Francesca Corney, a Thai actress known for the Apple TV+ series "The Buccaneers."

This recasting was announced in March of 2024, nearly a full year before the series premiered, and though Deadline couldn't confirm why Corney was replaced, sources said that they were looking for a slightly older take on the character. Corney isn't the only actor to be replaced on "The White Lotus" season 3 — the minor character of Aleksei was originally played by Miloš Biković, but he was replaced after expressing public support for Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Julian Kostov ended up booking the part. Corney hasn't spoken publicly about her departure from "The White Lotus" aside from an Instagram post shortly after news broke that Le Bon would play the role, where she posted pictures of herself briefly on set in Thailand.

So what is Chloe's deal on "The White Lotus," exactly? With two episodes yet to air as of this writing, we're still not entirely sure. Yes, we know she lives with Gary/Greg in his enormous estate in Thailand and freely offers rides on his giant yacht to strangers, including her new best friend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and the Ratliff brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola). (Greg's reappearance as a guy named Gary in the first episode of season 3 was certainly a surprise, and ultimately, Chloe's friendships and dalliances with other characters help bring him into the fray with everyone else.) 

We really don't know a whole lot about Chloe besides that she is not French, but Canadian, as she reminds a bored-looking Greg/Gary, and she apparently really likes to stir the pot. When we first see her, she's lounging at the hotel bar when Chelsea, whose older boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins) is in a foul mood, turns up and orders a martini; the two girls bond over dating grouchy old guys, with Chloe pointing out Gary sitting in a corner by himself. Despite the fact that Chloe says she loves Gary, she barely seems to spend any time with him — though she says that's because he's constantly telling her to go away, more or less — and in the show's sixth episode, "Denials," we watch as Chloe takes things a little too far with Lochlan and Saxon.

In the third season's fifth episode, "Full-Moon Party," Chloe drives pretty much all of the action when it comes to Chelsea, Saxon, and Lochlan. She talks all of them into taking Gary's boat to a local party celebrating the full moon, where she passes pills around (they're probably some form of MDMA, but the show don't confirm that one way or another). When they all end up back on the boat after the celebrations, the boys convince Chelsea and Chloe to kiss — and they do — before Chloe insists that the two brothers kiss. (They do, too.) In the following installment, "Denials," Chloe flits around like an agent of chaos, cheerfully telling Lochlan and Saxon that they hooked up the night before (while Chloe and Lochlan were having sex, Lochlan, well, digitally pleasured his older brother in the next bed over) and insisting that everyone join her and Gary for a dinner party.

We don't know how the dinner party is going to turn out quite yet, but frankly, Chloe seems to love stirring up trouble. Not only has she fractured the relationship between the Ratliff brothers, but her insistence that everyone attend the dinner does make it seem like she has something else planned. Maybe she'll fulfill Jennifer Coolidge's wishes and get justice for the actress' fallen character Tanya McQuoid, or perhaps she'll continue being a messy b**** who lives for drama. We'll find out in the last two episodes of "The White Lotus," and the show drops new episodes on Sundays at 9 P.M. on Max and HBO.