A FRIEND INDEED: LESLIE BIBB (ENG)
A FRIEND INDEED:
LESLIE BIBB
photography GARRETT NACCARATO for SEE MANAGEMENT production STEPHANIE AROUESTY art direction MARÍA JOSÉ AJA coordination SOFIA ZUCKERMANN & ALEXIS TAME interview NATALIE ROTERMAN stylist ANNA SU make up GITA BASS FOR THE WALL GROUP hair LONA VIGI FOR FORWARD ARTIST nails SONYA MEESH FOR FORWARD ARTIST retoque ZAIRIK TAMAYO location THE MARK HOTEL NEW YORK
From the glamour and coolness of the show Popular to the thrills of Iron Man, Leslie Bibb has long captivated audiences with her dynamic performances. But it’s her portrayal of Kate in HBO’s The White Lotus Season 3 that truly turned heads this year. As part of the blonde trio—alongside Michelle Monaghan and Carrie Coon—Bibb brings to life a character whose passive-aggressive portrayal of the perfect, Texan housewife made fans’ heads spin. But there’s so much more to the actress, from the way she views her work to her openness to keep learning and growing, Leslie is as lovely as she is loyal and strong.
“With Kate, I could really relate to her perfectionism, I understand being critical of yourself, and I think getting to play a woman who’s such a perfectionist and, and really, really digging into where that stems from… she’s changed me; I got to see how perfectionism leads to covering up insecurity and this need to be accepted which I really understand” -LB
For Leslie, choosing a character is no simple thing, as she is convinced it’s all about writing and chemistry. “I think it always starts with writing. The writing has to support the character. But also, there isn’t a rhyme or reason why something ignites in a person you connect with, I think it’s an energetic thing where something in me creatively goes, ‘I see this person’. It’s like an attraction and if I don’t have that, I can’t play them because then I don’t know them, but it’s very visceral in the moment, it’s almost like a chemical reaction like when you meet somebody, it’s kind of the same thing. And also because I know I’m going to live with my character forever; they become a part of me so I have to want to learn about them”.
This, of course, happened for the actress with her character on Season 3 of The White Lotus, Kate Bohr; not only was there an immense chemistry when she read the character, but she could see herself in many of the things that she entailed. “With Kate, I could really relate to her perfectionism, I understand being critical of yourself, and I think getting to play a woman who’s such a perfectionist and, and really, really digging into where that stems from… she’s changed me; I got to see how perfectionism leads to covering up insecurity and this need to be accepted which I really understand”, Bibb assures.
Additionally, Sam Rockwell, who she’s been together with for over 18 years, joined the cast of the show to play Frank. “I remember being very struck by Frank’s monologue and it actually informed a lot to me about Kate because I was reading this character who was really being so vulnerable but at the same time unable to risk telling her friends what she was insecure about, what she was fearful about, so I really feel that monologue felt like the whole message of the show. It was like what Mike [White] was being totally unapologetic,” said the actress. “That it really I think affected me and my work with Kate and how I approached her and what I knew I needed, I wanted to explore with her”.
The whole experience of working on a show like The White Lotus was very “eye-opening” for the actress and helped her understand the importance of vulnerability for her and her art. “Being vulnerable is so terrifying for people. We’re all like, ‘will they love me? Will they like me? Will they think I’m dumb? Will they accept me? Whatever it is. I’ve also spent my entire life taking care of myself since, working, paying for stuff since I was 16, so my narrative has always been a little ‘it’s me against the world’ and pushing a rock up a hill, which is a really alienating scope of how to look at the world and not great for this art. What’s great for art is to learn vulnerability and in risking you may fall, and people may drop you, but it’s too exhausting to do the other and it’s also just not interesting to me”.
As shown in the series, Leslie is, all in all, a good, loving friend, but in real life she describes herself as a fierce friend: “I think I show up for people and I’m like a natural caretaker. So if I say you’re my friend, you’re in my inner circle, you’re my friend, I know things about you. When I use the word friend, it’s a very, it has a deep meaning, I hold people very close to me”, she insists. Bibb even describes her friends as chosen family. “I’m at an interesting time of life right now because you have your family and both of my parents have passed away and my aunts and uncles have passed away. So as your family starts to get smaller as you age, the importance of friends grows. So yeah, my friends are like family to me”.
As shown in the series, Leslie is, all in all, a good, loving friend, but in real life she describes herself as a fierce friend: “I think I show up for people and I’m like a natural caretaker. So if I say you’re my friend, you’re in my inner circle, you’re my friend, I know things about you. When I use the word friend, it’s a very, it has a deep meaning, I hold people very close to me”, she insists. Bibb even describes her friends as chosen family. “I’m at an interesting time of life right now because you have your family and both of my parents have passed away and my aunts and uncles have passed away. So as your family starts to get smaller as you age, the importance of friends grows. So yeah, my friends are like family to me”.
