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Haley Lu Richardson’s drink of choice is a tequila soda. When she’s not at her Los Angeles home with her cat Derbin, dancing alone to Phoebe Bridgers (Richardson’s activity of choice when she needs to recharge), the actor can be found sipping the classic mixer at any one of the star-studded events she’s attended over the past year. Following the 27 year-old’s breakout role as Portia in HBO’s “The White Lotus,” she’s been everywhere from Oscar after parties to her first New York Fashion Week.
However, Richardson’s most thrilling night out was hundreds of miles outside of Hollywood, before the world was introduced to Portia. While filming “The White Lotus” in the desolate Italian city of Taormina, Richardson planned an excursion to Palermo with the entire cast to celebrate Adam DiMarco’s birthday, where they ended up at a strip club.
“That was definitely an experience,” she tells Variety over a Zoom call. “A bunch of us really wanted to see what a Sicilian strip club was going to be like. But ironically, the one person who didn’t want to go to the strip club was Adam. So we kind of dragged him along. But that was definitely the most funny, fun, interesting night we had there. There was a lot of bonding.”
Her love for tequila, and bonding with friends over a drink, is one reason she was tapped to partner with Cuervo for their “Go Off This Cinco” campaign. Launched Apr. 28, the campaign’s mission is to encourage tequila drinkers to spend less time scrolling and more time socializing in real life by giving away hundreds of Y2K flip phones (aka “dumb phones”) and thousands in cash for Cuervo cocktails. Cuervo accepted entries for a chance to win through May 5, on the site www.CuervoDumbPhone.com
As part of the campaign, Richardson has pledged to go completely phoneless for the month of May.
“I’ve talked a big game about getting rid of my iPhone and just going back to a flip phone that can just text and so I honestly was really excited to do this for myself for a month and see if I can do it,” Richardson says. “I’m just excited to actually go out and drive somewhere without my iPhone and my map and the internet. I’m excited to test myself in that way and also feel the relief also of not having the world at my fingertips at every given moment. Because as cool as that is, it’s also, as we all know, life-sucking and terrifying.”
