Valentina’s Deleted White Lotus Scenes Reveal Her Backstory
Apparently, she was once married to a man.
There’s a lot more to Valentina than initially meets the eye. The manager of the White Lotus’ Sicilian resort came off terse, cold, and no-nonsense at the start of Season 2, but as the show has progressed, viewers have gotten to see the yearning for companionship beneath her tough exterior. And the actor who plays her, Sabrina Impacciatore, revealed there’s even more about Valentina that hasn’t been shown. The actor broke down a few deleted scenes from The White Lotus Season 2 that delved into Valentina’s backstory.
After her big moment at the end of Episode 6, Impacciatore revealed which of Valentina’s scenes were cut from The White Lotus Season 2 in a Dec. 4 interview with Variety. Most notably, Impacciatore said she filmed a scene that revealed Valentina had been married to a man before, but showrunner Mike White decided to leave that detail out of the show’s final edit. “Some scenes we shot ended up being cut, including one about Valentina’s past where she says she was married once, to a man, but she wasn’t happy,” Impacciatore said, going on to reveal she imagined it to be an abusive relationship. “I invented a backstory about a husband who was abusive to her. I created everything I could to get close to her process.”
That detail would have gone a long way in coloring Valentina’s closed-off personality, as well as her nervousness in putting herself out there romantically. But Impacciatore praised the decision to not overexplain things with too much backstory. “Mike White is a genius — with just a little touch, he can make you understand something deep about a character and about life itself,” she said.
That wasn’t the only Valentina scene cut from the show. Impacciatore revealed another deleted scene saw Valentina doing a full 180 from the premiere and coming around to respect Lucia and Mia’s hustle. “There was another scene that got cut where I finally go up to the sex workers and tell them, ‘I understand what you’re doing, and I stand for you girls,’” Impacciatore said.
While Valentina lost a few scenes in the end, her story of a closed-off workaholic finally learning how to open up didn’t suffer at all.
The White Lotus Season 2 concludes Sunday, Dec. 11, on HBO and HBO Max.
