Originally published:  December 28, 2008

Note: Lari White died of cancer in January of this year. I will always remember her. Rolling Stone article about her life and death.


Amazing Performance of Lari White in Cast Away

I just saw Cast Away again and still love it. I want to give special kudos to an under-appreciated performance. That is Lari White as Bettina Peterson. “Who?” I hear you ask. If you’ve never seen this film, I suggest renting or buying it, and then read the rest of this entry.

If you’re still reading, I assume that you’ve seen the film. Bettina Peterson is the Texas woman who gives Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) directions at the end of the film. Why am I so awed by her performance? Here are her lines from the end of the film, in their entirety:

Bettina Peterson: You look lost.

Chuck Noland: I do?

Bettina Peterson: Where’re you headed?

Chuck Noland: Well, I was just about to figure that out.

Bettina Peterson: Well, that’s 83 South. And this road here will hook you up with I-40 East. If you turn right, that’ll take you to Amarillo, Flagstaff, California. And if you head back that direction, you’ll find a whole lot of nothing all the way to Canada.

Chuck Noland: I got it.

Bettina Peterson: All right, then. Good luck, cowboy.

Chuck Noland: Thank You.

Chuck has just been stranded on an island for 4 years and has just lost the love of his life who married another man because she thought that he was dead. Bettina has to make that OK. You have to love her immediately and you have to accept that she, and not Kelley (Helen Hunt) is Chuck’s destiny. I think she does it beautifully! Read her lines again. It’s not on the page. it’s all in the performance.

I’ve talked to several people about this film over the years and some people think that the film’s ending is ambiguous. I think it’s pretty explicit. We see Chuck literally standing at crossroads deciding which way to go, but if you look at Chucks’s expression as the film ends, you see that he’s made the decision, and it’s the one the film has been leading us to from the very first shot of the movie. He is looking into the camera back down the road toward Bettina’s house where he has just dropped of the package with the wings on it (the only one he didn’t open on the island). Before he smiles, he sees the same wings on the back of Bettina’s pickup truck. There is no question that he’s going to follow her back down that road.

If you were paying attention to the beginning of the film, you see that the very first shot of the film is of the same crossroads as a FedEx truck drives down for a pickup. It goes through the gates of a ranch where we see the wing symbol over the gate with the name Dick written on one Side and Bettina written on the other. We follow Bettina’s package to Russia where Dick signs for it in a cowboy hat and a robe as his mistress kisses him. They are divorced by the end of the film. When Chuck drives through the gate 4 years later, she has torn down the Dick side of the gate. The whole film has led Check to Battina’s door. And in my opinion, Lari’s 20 seconds of screen time at the end make this film work!