Mike White blasts 'White Lotus' composer over feud: "A b*tch move"

Clearly, there were major creative differences behind the show's music changes.

Tensions are flaring behind the scenes of HBO's hit series The White Lotus.

Creator and showrunner Mike White recently responded to the show's composer, Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, parting ways with the series — and he didn’t hold back.

White labeled Tapia de Veer's departure and public comments as a "bitch move" during a candid appearance on The Howard Stern Show.

“I honestly don’t know what happened, except now I’m reading his interviews because he decides to do some PR campaign about him leaving the show,” White said. “I don’t think he respected me. He wants people to know that he’s edgy and dark and I’m, I don’t know, like I watch reality TV. We never really even fought. He says we feuded.”

White elaborated further: “I don’t think I ever had a fight with him — except for maybe some emails. It was basically me giving him notes. I don’t think he liked to go through the process of getting notes from me, or wanting revisions, because he didn’t respect me. I knew he wasn’t a team player and that he wanted to do it his way.”

White didn’t mince words when addressing Tapia de Veer's recent interviews.
“I was thrown that he would go to The New York Times to shit on me and the show three days before the finale,” added White. “It was kind of a bitch move.”

Later, White elaborated a bit more on his frayed relationship with Tapia de Veer, alleging that the composer “didn’t want to go throughout the process with me’ and “didn’t want to go to sessions” during the production of the third season.

“He would always look at me with this contemptuous smirk on his face like he thought I was a chimp or something,” said White. "He’s definitely making a big deal out of a creative difference of opinion.”

The clash between the two creatives stems largely from a disagreement over the show's signature music style.

Tapia de Veer told The New York Times that he and White didn’t see eye to eye when it came to the theme song for The White Lotus Season 3.

Tapia de Veer claimed that White wanted to move away from the signature "ooh-loo-loo-loos" that had defined the first two seasons.

“Background music… a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe,” Tapia de Veer recalled of White’s preference.

“I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” Tapia de Veer explained.

“He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that. I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything.”