Patrick Schwarzenegger gets his biggest break yet by stripping down in Mike White’s third season of the HBO hit series “The White Lotus.”
This time “Lotus,” often a satirical look at privileged but clueless people with darkly dramatic twists of murderous violence and combustible sexuality, is set in a Thai White Lotus wellness center.
Schwarzenegger, 31, is Saxton Ratliff, the eldest son in a wealthy Alabama family – stressed out dad (Jason Isaacs), self-medicated mother (Parker Posey), baby brother (Sam Nivola) – who came to the center so his younger sister (Sarah Catherine Hook) can research her thesis with a famous Buddhist monk.
The series’ sex, violence and frequent nudity have made it irresistible. Saxton, boisterous and oblivious, and his shy brother are shocked partying with older, more experienced women.
“There’s some uncomfortable conversations between Sam and I in bed that are a little weird to show in front of your family,” Schwarzenegger acknowledged in a press conference. “I just put a lot of trust in Mike.
“Obviously doing certain nudity stuff is different when it’s a writer-director rather than someone you don’t know or don’t trust or haven’t seen their work.
“But what Mike has done with it in the past seasons, and how he always loves to push the envelope and continue to excite the viewers, I didn’t have any hesitations but to go ahead” – and get naked.
Added Nivola, 21 (whose parents are also actors, Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer), “This was my first nude scene ever. It was my first time kissing anyone on camera ever. Of course, that comes with a lot of fear and anxiety.
“I’m already anxious about acting in general — and then you got to do it naked? It’s (expletive) intense. But really, there’s few people that I would trust more with footage of my buttocks than Mike White. He made us feel so comfortable.”
“I was doing what Mike wanted and what was on the page,” Schwarzenegger added. “At first, I was nervous about that he was one-dimensional, just a frat boy.
“But when we started to collaborate on this character, Mike wanted him to be that frat Southern guy — but also someone you would laugh at and enjoy watching.
“There’s humanizing qualities: He really does love his family. He really does care about his brother and sister. He just doesn’t know how to necessarily articulate that.
“Or he doesn’t have the best set of values of what make a man or make a successful person. But he does try.
“Mike always told me, ‘I don’t want him to just be someone that everyone hates. I want them to laugh at and like him. And enjoy him.’ ”
“The White Lotus” S3 streams Sunday on HBO/MAX