The manager of the real 'White Lotus' hotel in Sicily says Jennifer Coolidge is exactly like her character from the show

• Lorenzo Maraviglia is the manager of the real "White Lotus" hotel in Taormina, Sicily.
• Maraviglia told Insider he struck up friendships with the cast and crew during filming.

There are many elements of "The White Lotus" that are fictional: the affairs, murder plots, and the drama that the characters experience during their luxury vacation in Sicily.

But one thing that remains true to life is Jennifer Coolidge's character, Tanya McQuoid, according to Lorenzo Maraviglia, the manager of San Domenico Palace, a Four Seasons Hotel, in Taormina where the second season was filmed.

Coolidge and her costars lived and filmed at the five-star, luxury resort for several months in 2022. A couple of weeks after my visit to the hotel in April 2023, I met with Maraviglia over Zoom to chat about his experience working there while the series was being filmed. He said he struck up a friendship with many of the cast and crew, including Coolidge.

"Jennifer Coolidge, the star of the show, is in real life the exact character you see on TV," Maraviglia said, referencing the obliviousness of Tanya's character that aided a series of unfortunate events at the end of the second season.

Throughout the season, Tanya often believed the best in people and failed to see when she was being betrayed by her new group of friends and her husband, Greg.

Speaking to Variety in December, Coolidge said that the show's creator, Mike White, was inspired by her "obliviousness" in real life and ended up making it "a Tanya thing."

"Mike White thinks it's very funny that I can handle big things, but a little thing will be my demise. Like, my technical inabilities with my phone or something will keep me from accomplishing something big," Coolidge said.

"These small things throw me off. It was so in line with who I am — I even heard Mike say that to somebody," she added.

Maraviglia went on to say that he was impressed with Coolidge's kindness, as she often stayed late after shooting to chat with the hotel staff.

"I have to say, the one thing I loved the most about her is that she's extremely human. She would treat a waiter the same way she would treat the producer," he said.

From Sicily to Hollywood

Maraviglia said he also became good friends with the show's creator, Mike White, and that he was invited to the Hollywood premiere of "The White Lotus" season two in October.

"It was incredible to be invited, to represent the hotel. It was a blue carpet, not a red carpet, but it was incredible," he said.

I wasn't surprised in the slightest that Maraviglia was asked to represent the hotel. Having seen it up close and on screen, it's clear San Domenico Palace should be seen as a character of its own, I told him.

"No wonder you felt like that, because everything you see on the show is the same as real life," Maraviglia said, adding that small details, like the fictional hotel staff's uniform, were provided by the hotel. He said that some of the real hotel staff were allowed to be extras in some scenes.

Maraviglia said his invitation to the premiere "shows how thankful they were for the destination and the hotel."

"And it shows how strong that link was," he added.

Representatives for HBO did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.