White Lotus Creator Mike White Explains Why He Couldn't Pass Up Survivor 50, Wants To Present As 'Avuncular, Early Alzheimer's Guy'

The following interview was conducted on location in Fiji before filming began for "Survivor 50."

"The White Lotus" creator Mike White knows a thing or two about beautiful secluded locations filled with ornery polar opposites. But as he tells TVLine in our pre-season interview, he doesn't want to talk or think about his day job. The man just wants a vacation. 

In "Survivor: David vs. Goliath," Mike made it all the way to Day 39, where he scored three jury votes and finished the season as runner-up. But now, the writer/director is putting his reality TV hat back on for the show's landmark season, where he'll be joined by his former castmates and friends Angelina Keeley (read her interview here) and Christian Hubicki. 

But how will Mike minimize his target and will he be able to hide in the shadows despite his notoriety outside of the game? Below, he takes us through his strategy, the parallels between "Lotus" and "Survivor," whether he'll do more reality TV, and so much more. 

TVLINE | What made you want to take a break from writing "The White Lotus" to come out here and play "Survivor" again?
MIKE WHITE | Weirdly, if it had happened in any other time in the last five years, I just would not have been available. But when they told me the dates, I was like, "I could actually do that." I love my show, obviously, and I'm excited to go back to it, but it's nice to think about something else, do something different, get out of my head, my little world. "Survivor 50" is such a huge event for so many people I know who are involved in the show, who were in the show, and also for me. So I just felt like this was a party invite that was pretty exclusive and I was like, "I can't pass this up."

TVLINE | Does your love of "Survivor" bleed into "The White Lotus" at all — a bunch of strangers who may not all get along, grouped together, stuck in a secluded beautiful location...
I feel like "The White Lotus" definitely has parallels to "Survivor." It's a lot of people sitting around talking, basically, and then you just have this feeling that someone's gonna die at the end of the episode. So yeah, that feels very "Survivor."

TVLINE | Have you started writing Season 4 of "The White Lotus" yet?
No, so after we play the game, I'm gonna start scouting for Season 4, so I don't even know where it's shooting.

TVLINE | Fiji is quite beautiful...
Fiji is beautiful. I think probably when I'm done here, I'll be ready to get out of Fiji though.

TVLINE | Does having both Angelina and Christian here with you serve as an advantage or a disadvantage?
I mean, it's good that there are multiple people from other seasons. It's not just our season, so I feel like other people are in the same boat. I feel like I want to work with Angelina and Christian. They are friends of mine. But at the same time, it's a fluid game. It's hard to know how it's all gonna play out and I feel like there's plausible deniability. I can always be like, "You know, I voted Christian out. He could be coming for me. I have no idea. We're friends outside of the game, but in the game, you never know." And Angelina... Angelina's gonna Angelina, so I can't be responsible if she blows up her own game or gets into some Angelina trouble. So I feel like, yeah, it could be a downside. It's definitely an upside to have friends in the game, but I also feel like I can figure out how to float.

TVLINE | If Angelina needs a jacket or an extra layer, are you gonna help her out?
I mean, people who have good jackets here, I think they should worry. They should look behind their back and make sure Angelina isn't scoping their jacket.

TVLINE | How will your strategy change going into your second game?
I feel like my strategy worked last time. It didn't help me win, but I got very close. I guess because, I don't know, I have a little notoriety outside the game, it's probably best for me not to come in guns blazing and try to make too much of an aggro first impression. I think it's good to be sort of affable, say I'm here for the rainbows and try to take myself off people's radars. But I feel like last time, I really didn't want to go home early because I so wanted the whole "Survivor" experience, which I got. This time I don't think I'm gonna be as fearful to get into trouble. 

TVLINE | You do have a raised profile. The last time you played was before "The White Lotus" premiered. Now it's one of the most acclaimed shows on TV. Could that affect your game?
I mean, I don't know. It's really about the other players' perceptions. I want a vacation. I want a break from "White Lotus." I don't wanna talk about "White Lotus." I don't wanna think about "White Lotus." So I'm not gonna be dangling "White Lotus" over anybody. I feel like I'm gonna be just wanting to play the game and get my head in the game, but it's hard. I could easily see the first vote being like, "Well, Mike White doesn't need the money," or I don't know. There might be some "White Lotus" haters out there, maybe. I don't know. It may come as some kind of negative, but we'll see.

TVLINE | Who are you most excited to see here, besides your former castmates?
I think I was most excited to see Ozzy just because I kind of know him. He's probably the only other contestant I actually know outside of the game. He's got such a compelling "Survivor" story, so it'd be fun to work with him, and I also am rooting for him because I just think he's somebody who's had a lot of heartbreak on the show and really proved to be something very unique, so I was stoked to see him. Cirie, I'm stoked to see just because she also has been like a perennially heartbreaking player and seeing her maybe get some just desserts would be cool for the fans, I'm sure. As a fan, I think that would be cool too.

TVLINE | Who are the threats you're going to keep an eye on?
Honestly, everybody here is here for a reason and everybody here probably wants to prove something, so I feel like everybody is a threat. I feel like once you start actually playing the game, there's a lot of strategic people and there's a lot of muscle. I'm neither, so I feel like that's actually gonna be a benefit for me.

TVLINE | Who has to be the first boot?
Honestly, nothing personal, but I would probably vote out Kyle, just because he just won. I just saw him win. There's three people from that squad here, and from watching that season, how tight they all are and to the death, I feel like, yeah, getting one of those three out would be probably the first move I would make.

TVLINE | Who is not here that you were expecting to see?
I don't know if I was expecting him to be here, but I would have been stoked to see Richard Hatch here. It just felt like that would be, you know, Season 50, the original winner. He played such a memorable game in that very first season, so it would have been cool to see Richard play in this new era.

TVLINE | Is there any part of your game you're hoping to course correct this time around?
The last season I was on, "David vs. Goliath," the very first day I got caught looking for an idol and I was backpedaling literally from the first day. It made me a lot more like, I don't know... I'm not gonna be caught looking for an idol again. But that was then, this is now. It'd be fun to have a little bit more firepower and try to find idols or advantages or whatever because I chickened out after that first day. I was like, "It's gonna ruin my game."

TVLINE | Did you vote in the fan vote? Anything you're hoping to get from that?
Obviously I'm hoping from the fan vote that they give us food and supplies because I do think it's fun to watch people rough it, but watching people starving is not necessarily, I think, that entertaining. Also, being out here, to have a little bit of that makes a big difference when you're starving.

TVLINE | Have you been keeping up with the new era?
I'll be honest, I have watched everything, but I haven't done recon. I didn't know who was gonna be here. I have been a little busy, so there are people where I'm like, "Did they win? Maybe? I think?" But again, I think in a way there's so many, hyper-strategic "Survivor" diehard players, to present as somebody who's kind of like, "Oh, did you win your season?" kind of like, avuncular, early Alzheimer's guy, I think that might be good.

TVLINE | Do you think there's anything you're going to have to adapt in your own gameplay to fit in with this faster-paced game?
You know, it's funny because until I'm playing it, I don't know what it's gonna be like. I remember in "David vs. Goliath," there were some big moves made at Tribal Council, and it was kind of like, "What happened?" And then afterwards, it just goes back to the social game that you were already playing. So I feel like you have to be aware that those things are out there, but I think you still have to just play a social game.

TVLINE | Any hot takes on the new era?
I really like the dynamics of camp life and how that creates a power dynamic, and what it says about people and the social experiment elements of it. That's what really attracted me to "Survivor" in the first place. So, I like that the game elements can sometimes amplify those situations or give a turn that's already established. What I don't really like is when those plot twists come before you ever even meet the people. Somebody right out the gate is having to figure out how to lie about some random thing because they went on a journey and you never really get a sense of how they gel in the overall dynamic. So I'm hoping that it's gonna be rapid-fire. There's so many of us, 24 contestants and 26 days, it's gonna be a bloodbath. So I think it's gonna be like nonstop, so I just hope that some of the player-generated content like Angelina wanting a jacket and that turning into an actual storyline, that some of those things can still emerge amongst all of the drama of voting.

TVLINE | Do you think new era players have an advantage over players that might come from older seasons?
I definitely think the new era people, since they've just played, are gonna have some better sense of how the game's gonna work. Some of us who played for 39 days and without all of these journeys and whatnot, yeah, that'll be new for us. So there's probably an advantage to having already gone through that stuff.

TVLINE | You've also been on "The Amazing Race" a couple times. Any other reality shows in your future?
I feel like this is probably it. This is my last reality stand. I've had such great experiences on both shows. "Survivor 50" is such a big deal and Jeff's my friend, and people on the crew... I was just like, "This just is too cool for me to be too cool to say, 'Oh no, I'm not gonna do it.'" Elisabeth Hasselbeck, I saw some video where she's like, "I'm not doing that! I'm gonna be cooking burgers. Speaking of burgers, Memorial Day is coming up..." Like, what are you doing? Like, really, that sounds more fun to you than "Survivor"? I don't think so.

TVLINE | What were your favorite seasons of "Survivor" to watch as a viewer?
Obviously, "Heroes vs. Villains" was like the ultimate returnee season. I think there's four people that were there for that. So that's really cool. It's cool to see these old school players, and I'm gonna be one of the people that's trying to keep them in the game. I won't be targeting them. I mean, until they get on my nerves.

TVLINE | Who are you getting good and/or bad vibes from thus far?
Some people are very friendly, like always smiling and trying to catch your eye, and then some people have full game face where they look tough, like they're about to go into battle, and I'm not sure why you would take that approach on "Survivor," especially at the beginning because those first impressions do kind of linger. It's an interesting experience. It's been quite a long week. It seems mega-sized.

TVLINE | With such an array of different players from different eras of the game, how are you going to approach the first three days of the game?
My attitude with all of these games, whether it was "Amazing Race" or "Survivor" is to really take people as they come and not try to pre-judge too much because even if you've seen them play, you don't really know what they're like until you're actually interacting with them. And I think it's better for my game to seem like somebody who could potentially work with anyone and not be too aligned in some kind of hard alliance off the bat. I think "Survivor" is definitely a game [where] it's better to be a slow burn, to not come in blazing hot because I think that you can burn out real quick. But I think all of these players have done well, so they know what they're doing.

TVLINE | What's one thing you're highly anticipating and one thing you're not looking forward to?
I'm just excited to start playing. I feel like this pregame starts getting in your head because it's like you're in this prisoner of war camp or something where everybody's yelling at you for talking or whatever. So I'm excited to start. I'm kind of nervous too because, and I realized it's weird. I've played before and I went the whole time and I knew how hard it was, but your memory, it's like childbirth. You forget how physically and mentally taxing it is. So now I'm out here and I'm having this sense memory of like, "Oh yeah, this is what it smelled like when we woke up. This is what it was like." And I was like, "Oh s–t, I remember it being so very hard." So that part of it is a little bit daunting because I don't have a lot in the tank, to be honest, from my day job.