‘The White Lotus' DP Breaks Down His Favorite Shot of Season 3
Director of photography Ben Kutchins chose to highlight this moment from episode three of The White Lotus' third season — in which Walton Goggins' Rick and Aimee Lou Wood's Chelsea visit a Thai snake show — for its rather frightening nature: the use of real serpents. As opposed to most of the scenes shot over the course of the Max drama's six-month production schedule, this was one of the 'rare sequences that we actually storyboarded,' says Kutchins. 'We were very specific about the placement of different snakes and where certain things were going to happen.'
Despite the meticulous planning, Goggins, who's no fan of the reptile species, did get bitten. 'It was harmless; it was a nonvenomous snake,' says the DP. 'He was such a committed actor, but it was so scary. He was terrified, and you can see the fear in his eyes.'
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Shooting Goggins through two panes of glass across a snake tank necessitated careful lighting of the space, which the crew shot at a snake show in Koh Samui, Thailand. 'The location that we chose was quite dark and dingy, so I chose to bring some life and warm it up,' says Kutchins. 'There were all these existing plexiglass windows, and I covered them with different tones of yellow, orange and red gel. Then I put in a bunch of fluorescents to add a little bit of bluish-green shadows.'
Later in the scene, Chelsea gets bitten by a venomous cobra, which also happened for real — sort of. Reveals Kutchins, 'That was actually a prosthetic leg, and a real snake biting it.'
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
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