Sam Rockwell on Frank's ‘White Lotus' backstory, Woody Harrelson's influence, and going all in on ‘this arc of Buddhist to Bad Lieutenant'
Sam Rockwell's now-legendary monologue in The White Lotus almost sounded very different. As you may recall, Woody Harrelson was originally slated to play the role of Frank, the 10-month sober and celibate friend of Walton Goggins' Rick. Due to a scheduling shift, Harrelson dropped out and Rockwell stepped in.
"With that monologue, there's many ways to go, and I think someone's tendency might be — or even my tendency was — to do a Southern accent. I guess because Woody was gonna do it, I had a kind of very sort of masculine Southern accent in my head," Rockwell tells Gold Derby. "So occasionally I would do that [while prepping]. And then I just realized that in order to really get to what was really great about that monologue, I had to get more of Sam in there."
More from GoldDerby
'Prizzi's Honor' at 40: How John and Angelica Huston made history together with his penultimate picture
'So indescribable and special': 'Happy's Place' stars Belissa Escobedo and Melissa Peterman on working with Reba McEntire
'Arcane' cocreator reflects on Season 2 and looks ahead to the future of 'League of Legends'
The simpler the better, he thought, because creator Mike White encapsulates the theme of Season 3 in those five minutes. "The conflict between the search for spirituality and selfishness, that's what most of the characters are struggling with," Rockwell says. "That's why it has to be uber, uber, uber honest and come from this place of gravitas."
Should the Oscar winner take home his first Emmy, he'll have many reasons to thank his partner, Leslie Bibb. After White, who worked with Rockwell on 2009's Gentlemen Broncos and 2020's The One and Only Ivan, offered him the part, Bibb convinced him to take it. She'd already been cast as pseudo Real Housewife of Austin Kate, devoured the scripts, and knew how special the monologue was: "Really, this is what Mike is talking about: How we want to live our life, and the honesty with which we want to live our life, the vulnerability with which we want to live our life, and risking getting to know who we are, and is who I am in here different from who I am out here — that balance between spirit and form,' she told Gold Derby.
Rockwell only hesitated because he was filming Gore Verbinski's Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, with its own 10-page monologue, and was afraid he wouldn't have enough prep time to do White's writing justice. He'd normally want four months to go through his process; he had something like six weeks, he recalls. Bibb visited him on location in South Africa, and while the two were on safari, they spent their afternoons between game drives drilling lines to get him off book. He half-joked with White that he might need a teleprompter or cue cards, and the White Lotus crew had an earwig prepared to assist him, but he didn't need it. He was able to film the length of the monologue in single takes.
"What's great about Mike is he told me to slow down. I was doing it very fast, and he's not afraid of pauses and taking time," Rockwell says.
He consulted with his longtime acting coach, Terry Knickerbocker, who helped him get to the heart of Frank. For the monologue, they discussed Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. "Because [Frank] is struggling with spirituality and selfishness, and the need for pleasure and this inward femininity, I really think the exterior needed to be very masculine to juxtapose that, for me to make it interesting," Rockwell says. It was implied in the script that Frank and Rick were ex-military. "Frank gives him a gun, we had a checkered past. Maybe we were mercenaries. We didn't want to get too specific about it, but I got a Navy SEAL tattoo that nobody would notice, the frog skeleton, and I got some scars to kind of rough up my exterior a little bit. I shaved my head," Rockwell says.
SEE Leslie Bibb breaks down her aha moments filming The White Lotus: 'Kate suddenly got jealous'
He drew from own past roles as well: "Choke [2008] was a movie I did that was about a sex addict, and that was good preparation for this monologue. And then I'd done stuff where I played an ex-Navy SEAL, so I'd already done that research. And then there was the Buddhism aspect, I just watched a couple of documentaries. And I did Drunks [1995] with Parker Posey, which was about Alcoholics Anonymous and NA. It's funny, it's like you play Laertes before you play Hamlet, you know, and there's an apprenticeship. So a lot of the parts that I've done, there were aspects of Frank in and it all came together."
Knickerbocker suggested an idea that Rockwell ultimately pitched to White: That when Frank poses as Hollywood director Steve to aid Rick's revenge, it's almost a separate character to play. "That's why we had the Tony Scott sort of baseball cap, and the Members Only jacket, kind of what Frank's idea of a director might have been from the '80s or '90s."
When Frank and Rick celebrate the latter's short-lived closure with a night on the town and return to the hotel with company, the scene was originally scripted as Frank just having sex, Rockwell shares. "I said, 'You know, we should really do this arc of Buddhist to Bad Lieutenant, and maybe I should be smoking crack. And there should be something kind of dangerous, like a knife or something. And we had some nunchucks — I mean, that got a little silly. So we had the crack pipe, and the girls were there hanging out, and I just said, 'Let's do this [bit showing them my knife skills].' I'd done this movie Mr. Wright [2015] where I learned some of this knife stuff. … It was a way to show his nuttiness."
As for the hilarious roll Rockwell performs when Frank chases a departing Rick down the hallway, the actor says that probably came from his fight training for 2024's Argylle. "That was a bad roll. That was a terrible role. I would hope I could do a better role than that, but he's sort of still drunk," he explains, laughing as he remembers that he took pictures off the wall in some takes. The animal-print briefs he was wearing were "an homage to Ray Liotta in Something Wild, or maybe Richard Gere in American Gigolo, an homage to those kind of dangerous archetypes, Tom Berenger in Looking for Mr. Goodbar.'
There could have been even more action in Frank's arc, it turns out. "We had a bar fight that we shot that was cut," Rockwell reveals. "It was a bar fight where I defend this transgender waitress from these Russian guys."
All in all, he spent about two and a half weeks on the show, filming his scenes as director Steve to get his sea legs before tackling the monologue opposite Goggins, whose reaction shots are priceless. Those two have been good friends for 15 years, since meeting on 2011's Cowboys & Aliens. 'I don't know if I've ever had that experience, acting with a close friend playing close friends," Rockwell says. "I had an instinct that we would have this kind of Butch-Sundance thing going. You know this Cagney-and-Lacey kind of thing. I think Walt did, too, and Leslie did. I knew we'd have a shorthand, and we could make each other laugh. … Walt and I come from a similar background. We're both latchkey kids, [raised by] single parents, and we both performed with our mothers when we were very young. He did clogging contests with his mother, which is kind of Southern tap-dancing, and I did a play with my mom when I was 10. I'm a city kid, he's a country kid, but we definitely identify. We've worked in restaurants, and we've been broke, me and Walt. So we have a lot in common."
It's difficult to imagine another actor playing Frank — even Harrelson has said he wouldn't have done as fantastic a job as Rockwell did. "I think he would have been amazing. I'd love to have seen Woody's version of Frank," Rockwell says of his costar from 2012's Seven Psychopaths and 2012's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. "I couldn't stop thinking about him, actually, while I was doing it. It definitely influenced my interpretation."
To date, he hasn't heard Harrelson's review in person. "I haven't seen him in a while. I'm sure he'll have something to say. He'll make some joke," Rockwell says with a grin. "He's one of my favorite people. He's one of the funniest people I know. He's mischievous. I love Woody. So we'll talk about it at some point, and he'll say something really witty, I'm sure."
Best of GoldDerby
Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh admit they 'never had the audacity to realize' a show like 'Deli Boys' was possible
From 'Housewives' overload to the 'shadiest queens' alliance: The dish on 'The Traitors' Season 4 lineup
Leslie Bibb breaks down her aha moments filming 'The White Lotus': 'Kate suddenly got jealous'
Click here to read the full article.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘The White Lotus' Creator Mike White and Team Break Down the Finale's Deadly Piña Colada Scenes — and Why Season 3 Made Him Feel Like a ‘Head Case'
Yes, 'White Lotus' creator and director Mike White put an implied incest scene in Season 2 — the two men turned out to be lying about their familial relation — then upped the ante in Season 3 to a hand job between real brothers. But he does draw the line somewhere: a man killing himself, his wife and his children, for example. 'As dark as we go in this show, that's too dark,' White says. That's why Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) can't go through with his plan to poison his family in the Season 3 finale, even though letting them live means they'll soon learn he's lost everything they have by getting caught in a money laundering scandal. More from Variety Jason Isaacs Champions Tom Felton Playing Draco Malfoy Again, Gives His Blessing to New Lucius Malfoy Actor Johnny Flynn: 'I Can't Wait to See What He Comes Up With' Parker Posey Tells Lisa Kudrow to Star in 'The White Lotus' Season 4 as They Bond Over Sitcom Struggles and Why Phoebe on 'Friends' Was 'A Lot of Work' Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan on 'The White Lotus' Cut Scenes: 'There Are Things You Won't See That Are a Part of Our History' 'You're showing the weaknesses of human behavior and how that can lead to deadly consequences. At the same time, there's hopefully enough empathetic humanism to offset all the acid. It's got enough of everything to be palatable, and yet, you still feel like you're doing something new.' Timothy is partially based on French aristocrat Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, who was plagued by debt and allegedly killed his wife, four children and two dogs in 2011 before disappearing. A producer pitched White on writing a show about the murders, and though he found the idea too depressing, he never stopped thinking about that family. 'I kept thinking about how someone could lose the plot and kill the thing that he loves the most — this idea of somebody wanting to protect his family from hardship, and that they couldn't survive without all the creature comforts they're used to,' White says. 'I started thinking it'd be interesting to have a guy realize this at the beginning of vacation, so there's this public shaming that's going on back home, but they're ensconced in this paradise somewhere far away.' White's thought was, 'Well, that is so 'White Lotus.'' The Ratliffs' phones are taken away upon their arrival at the Thailand outpost, but Timothy eventually wrangles his back and finds out that the FBI is investigating him. Dosed up on lorazepam he stole from his wife, Victoria (Parker Posey), Timothy spends the rest of the season having visions of suicide, which broaden to murder-suicide as Victoria and their children inadvertently reveal how ill-prepared they are for poverty. 'It's not a fantasy; it's a plan,' Isaacs says of the dream sequences. 'I mean, it's a drug-addled plan, but even if he wasn't taking the drugs, there is no way to avoid the stuff going on in his head — the terror of the abyss.' Rather than Dupont de Ligonnès, Isaacs' reference of choice was disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell, who is now more famous for fraud, embezzlement and being Ghislaine Maxwell's father than for any of his business successes. Though Maxwell's 1991 death by drowning was ruled an accident, Isaacs sees it differently: 'He jumped off his yacht and killed himself rather than come onto land, and I thought about him a lot. I thought, 'You know, it's not a bad choice for Tim.' The only thing is, he starts roping in his wife when it becomes clear she can't cope. Then, my son can't. Then, my jewel, my daughter. He's such an alpha male patriarch. His daughter has a special place in his heart, and when she comes and says, 'I'm a princess. I couldn't bear to be poor,' there's a crushing disappointment knowing he has to kill her too.' While visiting a monastery, a monk (Suthichai Yoon) tells Timothy that death is like being a single water droplet falling back into the ocean, saying, 'No more suffering. One consciousness. Death is a happy return.' Unsurprisingly, Timothy takes away the wrong message, deciding he can now justify his most depraved instincts. 'He's continually trying to find some other way,' Isaacs says. 'There's always someone to pay off, something to be done. And when there isn't, and the monk paints a picture of death that seems incredibly inviting to him, that makes it all right to kill.' In their own ways, Victoria, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) all fail to prove to Timothy that they can handle a more humble life. So, in the finale, Timothy hatches a plan to blend the poisonous seeds of the resort's native pong-pong trees into piña coladas for his family to share — minus Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who isn't 21 and, crucially, is the only family member who passes Timothy's secret test and is deemed grounded enough to make it without wealth. The images on screen slow and distort as the lethal cocktail comes together on the Ratliffs' last night in Thailand. Rum and coconut milk fall gently from Timothy's hands into the blender, the camera watching from a chaotic assortment of angles that make each ingredient appear close enough to get a whiff. 'We really wanted to put the audience inside of Tim's head,' says cinematographer Ben Kutchins. 'He's lost in this nightmare where no one loves him if he's not rich, and I was using various lenses, including these very old projection lenses, to show how disturbed his worldview had become.' Each family member elegantly slides in and out of fame as Timothy distributes the poison. 'We're doing this ballet with the camera and the actors as he's passing out the drinks in floating, dreamlike slow-motion,' Kutchins continues. 'Then we hard cut. Previously, this would have been where we reveal that this is just a dark fantasy. But this time, we see that Lochlan is getting a Coke, and everyone else has the piña coladas. This is real. This is happening.' After an awkward speech about their 'perfect family' and 'perfect life,' the Ratliffs clink their glasses and take a sip. However, they notice that something tastes wrong but continue drinking anyway — until Timothy suddenly swats Saxon's glass out of his hand, shattering it. 'This was his solution, but instinctively, he bypasses his brain,' Isaacs says. 'On an animal level, he just loves them too much. There aren't completed thoughts, just terror, panic and the overbearing love for life.' Thus, the Ratliffs trade their piña coladas for chardonnay as Timothy mutters about the coconut milk being 'off,' and he eventually goes to bed understanding that his money problems are inescapable, but at least he has his family by side. But the next morning, Lochlan makes a protein shake in the unwashed, poison-ladened blender and, in a way, dies. After vomiting into the swimming pool and rolling onto his back, he begins to hallucinate that he's deep underwater and trying to swim towards four shadowy figures who are standing over the surface. At first, he sees flashes of his family's faces, but the figures turn out to be monks. According to editor and second unit director John Valerio, an earlier version of the finale script included Lochlan's body washing ashore at full moon party, where he watches a group of four monks using a flaming jump rope. White cut the scene before it was ever shot, but the idea stuck with Valerio. 'While I was shooting second unit, one of the transition shots we had for Episode 3 was this very low angle at looking up at the monks. That reminded me of Mike's original finale script,' he says. 'I was like, 'What if, when Lochlan is in the water, he can see the monks waiting to take him to the next world?' So we shot the monks standing over a mirror. We threw water on it to give it a reflective, watery surface, and I cut to it when Lochlan is dying. It was a more simple, personal, spiritual moment, rather than the wildbacchanal of a full moon party.' Eventually, while being held and shaken by a sobbing Timothy, Lochlan wakes back up. 'I think I just saw God,' he says. 'Lochlan is a kid in search of firmer footing in the world,' White explains. 'He wants to be a believer, but he needs some kind of proof. He's so lost with what happens with Saxon' — the aforementioned sexual encounter — 'that I was like, 'Well, here's some catharsis for him. He's centered in a deeper way than he was at the beginning of the week.' As the Ratliffs take a boat away from the resort, moments away from learning of their financial ruin, there's an almost-smile on Timothy's face. The water surrounding them recalls the image of death described to him by the monk. 'He thinks, 'This is exactly what we need: to be a drop of water in the ocean. To be part of common humanity,'' Isaacs says. 'It's actually the best thing that could happen. They will be humbled by this, and they'll no longer need to maintain this huge gap of superiority over the rest of the world. They'll recognize they are just like everybody else.' 'His friend Donald [Trump] could make a phone call and give him a pardon,' Isaacs continues, speculating. 'He could [evade] prison easily. Someone could change the law. But I don't think he wants to. I think he wants to embrace a new reality.' Posey, for her part, imagines that Victoria will work to find her way back to her old reality 'I think it's going to be hard for her without money, but I have no worries about her finding her own wealth, she says. Victoria and Timothy have 'known each other since the seventh grade, and it's been very locked in for a very long time. But the karma of that is over, so I would love to see her fury. I'd love to see see her wake up, because she's delusional. So it's either that, or to see her with another wealthy man.' Fans of the 'White Lotus' have their own theories about what happens next — as well as opinions about every other beat of the story. White, throughout the season, was vocal about experiencing significant anxiety over the two months that episodes of Season 3 were being released due to criticism he was receiving on the internet. 'Over time, I can digest all of that. But in the moment, sometimes it feels more than that you just didn't like this storyline,' he says. 'It feels like I came and took a shit on your lawn or I set your house on fire. The anger — it just feels like, 'Whoa.'' 'I mean, I'm 54 years old. I'm not a kid. I've been on reality shows — I know what it's like to be criticized,' White continues. (He has competed on 'The Amazing Race' twice and 'Survivor' once, and is currently filming 'Survivor' Season 50.) 'But I was so excited about the finale and getting it out there, and it made me realize that some people just can't get past that [Lochlan] makes the shake in a dirty blender.' Obviously, those feelings aren't keeping White from continuing to make the show the way he wants to; 'The White Lotus' was renewed for a fourth season before Season 3 had even premiered. 'The show is not built to win a popularity contest. It's built to be provocative, and it's not going to have a uniform reaction,' he says. 'So I need to suck it up. I'm just a combination of somebody who wants to, like, goose people, but then also you want people to embrace you. That's just human nature.' With a laugh, White concludes: 'So, whatever. I'm just a head case.'Best of Variety 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jason Isaacs Says ‘White Lotus' Equal Pay Earned Each Actor $40,000 an Episode: ‘Do I Mind That I Wasn't Paid More Than' Younger Co-Stars? ‘I Never Work for Money'
Jason Isaacs confirmed in a new interview with Vulture that every cast member on 'The White Lotus' Season 3 made $40,000 an episode, bringing their total pay for the series to around $320,000 each. Isaacs noted that sum is actually 'a very low price' for such a hugely successful television series. 'I didn't know that was public knowledge. That's absolutely true,' Isaacs said. 'Generally actors don't talk about pay in public because it's ridiculously disproportionate to what we do — putting on makeup and funny voices — and just upsets the public. But compared to what people normally get paid for big television shows, that's a very low price. But the fact is, we would have paid to be in it. We probably would have given a body part.' More from Variety Sam Rockwell on Choosing His 'White Lotus' Leopard Underwear and Why 'Sinners' Made Him Believe Hollywood Will Survive 'The White Lotus' Creator Mike White and Team Break Down the Finale's Deadly Piña Colada Scenes - and Why Season 3 Made Him Feel Like a 'Head Case' Jason Isaacs Champions Tom Felton Playing Draco Malfoy Again, Gives His Blessing to New Lucius Malfoy Actor Johnny Flynn: 'I Can't Wait to See What He Comes Up With' 'The White Lotus' cast being paid equally meant that acting veterans such as Isaacs and Parker Posey made the same as relative newcomers to the industry like Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola. Isaacs politely scoffed when asked if he thought that was fair or not. 'Do I mind that I wasn't paid more than other people? I never work for money,' Isaacs said. 'I've done all right. People will think I have huge stockpiles of money but sadly, what I've done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I've earned over the years.' Isaacs also used 'The White Lotus' set to impart wisdom on his younger co-stars, mainly how they can't 'over-invest' in the final product because it's completely out of their control. That's for creator Mike White to worry about more than his actors. Isaacs learned that lesson the hard way after playing Captain Hook in 2003's notorious misfire 'Peter Pan.' 'It was a big expensive production with multiple studios. We filmed for 14 months. … The film tanked,' Isaacs said. 'I think it's a masterpiece, but people looked at the poster and went, 'Oh, fuck it. I've seen 'Hook' with Robin Williams, and I've seen the cartoon. Why do I need to see another one?' It was a catastrophe professionally for me, a huge fall from grace. I couldn't get a walk-on role. And I changed my agent and I almost changed my job, frankly, because I didn't think I'd work again. The lowest I've ever been was after 'Peter Pan.' I was really in despair but not as bad as I would have been had I believed any of the bullshit that had been whispered in my ear. I didn't over-invest in the results of it, which is something I tried to counsel the young actors on 'The White Lotus' not to do.' 'The White Lotus' Season 3 is streaming in its entirety on Max. Head over to Vulture's website to read more from Isaacs' latest interview. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jenna Bush Hager Gets a Dramatic Haircut While on Air
Originally appeared on E! Online Jenna Bush Hager is checking into the summer with a new look. Indeed, the Jenna & Friends host made good on her promise to Leslie Bibb and joined the White Lotus star in rocking one of the summer's most in demand looks: The blunt bob. And Jenna had Leslie's hairstylist Chris McMillan along for the ride to help her achieve the look. As the final hour of Today came to a close June 16, Jenna took the plunge with Leslie by her side as Chris—who is also known for Jennifer Aniston's iconic Rachel haircut from Friends—slowly chopped the back of Jenna's signature shoulder length hair blonde tresses. And Leslie, who first convinced Jenna to try out the cut in during her March appearance on the show, cheered Jenna on as Chris got to work, telling her, 'You're such a badass, you're cool. I love this.' As for Jenna's reaction to the 'do after Leslie handed Jenna the clipped blonde tresses from the nape of her neck Jenna exclaimed 'Whoa that's so short.' More from E! Online 'Traumatized' Justin Bieber Shares Text Message Ending a Friendship Cher's Son Elijah Blue Allman Hospitalized, Estranged Wife Speaks Out Why Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Says Kody Brown and Robyn Brown's Courtship Wasn't "Really Appropriate" However, Chris assured Jenna that the back of the head is always the shortest part and that the look would actually accent the color that she already has in her hair. And though she was getting the cut done in front of Leslie, Today staff, onlookers outside of Studio 6A and viewers at home Jenna—mom to kids Mila, 13, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5, with husband Henry Hager—revealed the one person she's curious for a reaction from. who was a little apprehensive. 'I will say, my daughter was like, 'Mom don't do it,'' she said. ''You're gonna regret it.'' 'Tomorrow,' Jenna told the camera, 'You'll see the full look.' After the show, Chris shared insight into the style, sharing he wanted to keep Jenna's look 'a little more modern and sexy,' so that the anchor can be versatile with her hair like Jessica Biel, Leslie and Charlize Theron. "You can slick it behind your ears, like do the tuck," he told in an interview published June 16. "You can wear it natural, you can wear it wavy.' Keep reading for more celebrity hair transformations… (E! and Today are both part of the NBCUniversal family.) Chris PrattFinn WolfhardSebastian StanJoJo SiwaEmily RatajkowskiGypsy Rose BlanchardWhitney RoseHailey BieberLily CollinsKatie HolmesKylie JennerLisa RinnaPriyanka ChopraJessica BielMegan FoxDannielynn BirkheadDemi LovatoKelly OsbourneKim KardashianRihannaDelilah Belle HamlinMegan FoxZendayaElle Fanning
