Haley Lu Richardson: People hating on my White Lotus character need 'therapy'

Haley Lu Richardson is owing to what’s hers.

Speaking at the Just for Variety podcast, the 28-year-old actress defended the choices her character Portia made in The White Lotus, claiming that the criticism “saddened” her.

“There was probably the first couple of episodes where I was seeing some things and reactions to things with Portia and me that I was taking personally or I wasn’t fully sure how to take it or how to process it.”

Although Richardson eventually came to realize that her character had people talking about the show in general, she noted that “the one thing that I thought was actually kind of unfair and warped was the people who were saying that she was awful or she was the real villain of the season."

“There’s no way that you can look at that young woman and be like, ‘She is the most awful one on this show.’ People who think that should go to therapy.”

In rather lighter topics, the actress weighed in on Jennifer Coolidge's, who plays Tanya in the show, suggestion to kill off her evil husband, Greg, played by Jon Gries, on the show

“Jon and I worked together in the first movie I ever did — when I was 17 — called The Last Survivors,” she recalled, adding, “I was the hero and he was the villain. I killed him at the end of the movie with a samurai sword.”

She said she’d like to re-create that moment in Season 3 of The White Lotus, which takes place in Thailand. “Portia is somewhere in Asia with a samurai sword and kills Greg.”