Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Granno, who play Elisa Russo and Carolina Fanti in the Italian medical series “Doc”, were starring in one of the funniest American series of recent years.
From the successful Italian medical series to one of HBO’s most iconic American series, there is only one step that two Doc actresses have decided to take.
On October 30, 2022, American viewers discovered the first episode of season 2 of The White Lotus, a fiction created by Mike White, which each season follows a group of wealthy vacationers who come to spend an idyllic stay in one of the luxurious hotels from the group “White Lotus”. If the first season took us to Hawaii, the second burst of episodes took us to Taormina in Italy.
Two Doc actresses in the casting
To immerse viewers in la dolce vita, the production of The White Lotus decided to call on Italian actors to portray certain characters in this season 2.
And among them were two faces well known to fans of medical series: Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Granno who respectively play Elisa Russo and Carolina Fanti in the Italian series Doc, whose new season 3 arrives this Wednesday March 20 on TF1.
In The White Lotus, forgetting the blouses and other complex medical cases, the two actresses play Lucia and Mia, friends who will take advantage of the wealth of the residents of the White Lotus to achieve their ends.
HBO Beatrice Granno and Simona Tabasco
A role which allowed Simona Tabasco to be nominated in the category of best supporting actress in a drama series at the 2023 Emmy Awards against her costars Meghann Fahy, Sabrina Impacciatore, Aubrey Plaza and Jennifer Coolidge, who won the statuette .
A compositional role
During the broadcast of season 2 of The White Lotus, Beatrice Granno explained to our colleagues at Variety that the role of Mia was made for her, and that she had done everything to be selected.
“When we received the casting proposal, everyone was talking about it. Especially the actresses because they are central Italian characters,” she confided. “When I first read Mia’s profile, I felt something. Mike was looking for someone with a young, innocent look, and he wanted her to know how to play the piano and sing.”
“As soon as I read that, I said to myself, ‘This is really perfect.’ Because I know how to do that. […] When I was casting, I messaged my agent and said, ‘I’m going to do everything in my power to get the role, because it’s right for me.’”
And we must believe that the actress was right since it was she who was chosen to play Mia. A role which allowed him to find Simona Tabasco on a film set. The latter in fact left Doc at the end of season 2.
Catch the new season 3 of Doc from this Wednesday March 20 from 9:10 p.m. on TF1. For latecomers, the first two seasons of the medical series are available in full on the TF1+ platform.