Sam Nivola: I Didn’t Watch The White Lotus Until I Got The Part

The youngest Ratliff has a decision to make: follow in the footsteps of his douchey workaholic brother, or side with his Buddhism obsessed sister. ‘Lachlan is just insanely insecure,’ star Sam Nivola tells C&TH from his New York apartment. ‘He looks up to both of them and is desperately searching for the right way to continue.’ It’s one piece in the huge jigsaw puzzle of The White Lotus season 3, which whisks a bunch of moneyed Americans to Thailand and also traces the apparent downfall of Ratliff patriarch Timothy (Jason Isaacs), Rick Hatchett’s (Walton Goggins) mysterious obsession with the hotel owner Sritala (Lek Patravadi), and the masterfully subtle cattiness of a trio of gal pals.

And what will we see when the final piece is laid? ‘I wish I could talk on and on about it, but I’m really not allowed to say anything,’ Sam tells us. ‘All I’ll say is that it’s definitely crazier and wilder than either of the previous seasons. Some really wacky shit goes down.’ Here’s what else to expect.

Minor spoilers for The White Lotus season 3 episode 1 ahead.

‘The White Lotus season 3 is crazier and wilder than either of the previous seasons’ (© Kim Verbeck)

Sam Nivola On The White Lotus Season 3

Hi Sam, how’s life going at the moment?

Life is good. I’m in my apartment in New York. It’s really cold right now, which is the only annoying thing. I live in a really old building, and the heat only sort of half works. But yeah, I’m doing well.

You can currently be seen in the third season of The White Lotus, which is such a beloved series. What can viewers expect this time around?

God, I just wish I could talk on and on about it, but I’m really not allowed to say anything. All I’ll say is that it’s definitely crazier and wilder than either of the previous seasons. Some really wacky shit goes down. I think the style is very different from the previous seasons, too, which I really like. It’s amazing to me, the way that Mike [White, creator and director] is able to create these stories that are so similar to one another and sometimes involve the same characters, but using the location and the cast to make a completely new show every season. Season 3 is no exception to that. It’s totally different in style and look; the music’s different, the country, and the actors are different, of course. But yeah, there’s a lot of different, new and crazy shit from the first episode.

This interview will come out after the first episode has aired, so I think it’s safe to say: I was really shocked when Greg (Jon Gries) appeared on screen. I did not see that coming. I’m eager to see what he’s going to get up to because he’s quite a character. Have you watched the whole series yet?

I totally know what unfolds because we shot it all, but I haven’t been able to see any of it. All the actors were sent the first episode, but we know what happens because of the script and shooting it. But yeah, it was a real wild goose chase trying to hide from everyone that Jon Gries was in it. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of him. We would all go to dinner with him in Thailand, and people would ask, ‘Are you in the new series?’ And he’d have to be like, ‘No, I’m just a friend. Just visiting.’ It was a whole thing.

But I know, it’s pretty shocking! I feel like everyone was saying, in this new season, the biggest thing that’s missing is Jennifer Coolidge’s presence. I think it’s really smart writing, the way that Jon Gries’ character brings with him at least the memory of her and her money, and keeps her spirit alive in the show – which I think is important, because she is this show, basically.

Sam describes Lochlan’s older brother, Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger, left) as ‘a sort of douchey business type’. (The White Lotus season 3, HBO)

It’s such a beloved, talked about series. What did you think of the first two seasons? Were you a fan of the show before you got the role?

I’m going to be completely honest: I did not watch the show basically until I got the part in season 3. Which is so shameful, because when I did finally watch it, it took me about one night to watch both seasons. I grew up being really pretentious and just obsessed with movies – and I still am; I adore movies – but I was always snobby about TV as a medium. But The White Lotus has changed my mind about that. There’s something about that show that is just amazing. It was so cool for me that after I got the part, I was like, ‘OK, let me see what this is about’. And then I saw it, and I was like, ‘God I’m lucky that I get to be included in something like this – even if it’s only tangentially remotely related to these previous two seasons.’ They’re such amazing works of art. They’re so honest and funny and true. I loved getting to watch them for the first time, knowing that I was going to be a part of it.

Mike White is so sharp, so clever with his social commentary. What was he like to work with?

I remember auditioning for him, and this is not to throw shade on any of the previous writers that I’ve worked with, but Mike has a specific kind of writing that is just so realistic and funny that it is so easy as an actor to say his words. Even though it was the audition of the year that I cared about the most, I didn’t really prepare for it at all, because you just say these words and they sound real – you don’t have to do very much to bring the text into reality. That work is already done by the writing, which was just amazing.

You play Lochlan or ‘Lockie’ – how would you describe him?

I think he falls in line very closely with the sort of characters that I’ve played my whole life. In The Perfect Couple, I was a very similar awkward teen who is probably a virgin and is a bit of a loser, but has a sort of naive curiosity about the world, which is what draws me to those characters. I don’t know, basically a version of who I was in high school.

Yes, Lockie reminds me a lot of Will in The Perfect Couple: a quiet observer in a family of larger-than-life characters. How did you all go about developing your family dynamic in The White Lotus?

I’m going to sound like a broken record, because I’m sure everyone else that’s ever been interviewed about The White Lotus has said the same thing, but you’re living in the hotel that you’re shooting in, so you develop very close friendships with the people that are in your on-screen unit. I became best friends with everyone in my big family. We were there for seven months, so far away from everything we know back in America, with only each other to lean on – as well as my lovely, amazing girlfriend who came and visited me – and as a result, we got insanely close. The lines between reality and that show definitely got blurred. It felt like we were a family on holiday, because we kind of were, you know?

Any highlights from filming in Thailand? Did you stay beyond the shoot?

I didn’t stay on because we had been there for seven months, and I was just so homesick. I adored Thailand, but seven months is too long, in my book, to be anywhere except at home. So I didn’t really get the chance to explore around, but my on screen sister Sarah Catherine Hook went all over the place – Vietnam, Tokyo, Seoul – and most of the cast went to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. I didn’t get to do that: I got unlucky with how my schedule panned out, so there was never really a time when I wasn’t working for enough days to go out. Or maybe I was just lazy.

But I loved Thailand! I got really into Muay Thai boxing with a few of the others; that was really fun. That’s just the thing that they do there for PE, so everyone is insanely good at it. And they do it in 110 degree heat outside, in the baking sun! And, yeah, all the amazing burlesque shows, the food, the beaches. It’s too much to condense into one sentence. We were all over this beautiful country over the course of half a year, and I experienced so many diverse things and people. Overall, 10 out of 10. I would totally go back. I loved Thailand, and Thai people are just the best. So nice.

‘Lachlan’s whole struggle in life is that he’s stuck between his brother (left) and his sister (Sarah Catherine Hook, centre). (HBO)

As the series unfolds, we see everyone’s plots unfold and the families’ lives intersect. Can you tease anything about Lochlan’s journey across the series?

Well, Lachlan’s whole struggle in life is that he’s stuck between his brother and his sister. They both want to be his mentor – and they have very opposing worldviews. My older brother is a sort of douchey business type who is just like, ‘you got to get girls and be stoked about life! You just got to be rich, and that’s how you are happy!’ But my older sister is the one who’s taken us to Thailand because she’s obsessed with Buddhism, spirituality and religion, and she’s trying to preach this more holistic spiritual life for me. And Lachlan is just insanely insecure. He looks up to both of them and is desperately searching for the right way to continue. So I think my character’s main struggle over the course of the show is coming to terms with these two conflicting world views and being pushed and pulled in either direction. Then it sort of culminates in a crazy sequence of events that I will not discuss any further.

This iteration of The White Lotus is more of a wellness retreat than in previous seasons, and in the first episode your family is asked to put their tech in a bag to store away, and none of them are into it at all. Would you ever take yourself off on a retreat like that?

Well, I have to say, I sort of have been on a wellness retreat now having shot The White Lotus, because we stayed in these hotels that were very much like spa hotels, and it was amazing. In Thailand – partially because it’s so hot all the time and you sweat so much, and you burn in the sun – you look after your body in a way that you wouldn’t, maybe, in more forgiving climates. I love keeping myself healthy when I can, it makes me feel really good, but I don’t know if I would go on one of those retreats. I feel like I’d rather just stay at home and switch my phone off for 10 days or something. But for me, the problem isn’t really the phone. I’m never doomscrolling. I’m not addicted to social media. But I’m totally addicted to playing video games with my friends. That’s my kryptonite. I might have to take a sledgehammer to the Xbox at some point.

You’ve also starred in White Noise, Eileen, Maestro… What has been your favourite project to date?

Probably, in a way, my favourite has been the work I’ve done with my little production company: producing other people’s movies, I directed a short, and working with my friends who are my age and who are all down to sleep on the floor of a random Airbnb for 10 days to shoot a movie. That’s the most fun to me.

But as an actor, my most formative role has got to be in White Noise with Noah Baumbach. That was just crazy. I was still in high school when we started, and it was the first audition I’d ever done, the first job I’d ever got. He was at the time – and still is – my favourite director on this planet. It was truly an overwhelming and shocking thing to have happened – that I wound up on that set and I learned 80 percent of everything that I know about the dynamics of a movie set, but also about acting and directing. I was just so young, sponging it all in, and then it resulted in a really awesome movie. And everyone we worked with was great, and that was just that was a great time.

Sam Nivola starred as Will Winbury in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple last year, opposite Nicole Kidman as his mother, Greer Winbury. (Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024)

Any roles in the pipeline that you’re excited about? (If you’re allowed to tell us!)

I do, I have a pilot that I just shot called Phony for Hulu. We shot that in Vancouver over eight days (which was probably not enough!) with the amazing writer-director-visionary Nick Paley. He is a total genius, and I had an absolute blast shooting it. I’ve never done a pilot before, and I was under the impression that they didn’t really exist anymore! I had so much fun doing it, and it felt closer to my experiences of writing, directing and producing – everyone was so collaborative, wanting to make it work, working their asses off all for this common goal. I hope it gets picked up. Hulu, if you’re reading this, pick up the show!

What’s a genre you haven’t tackled yet that you’d like to try?

I’ve done a bit of comedy and a bit of drama. I love them both more than any other genre, but I’d like to do an action movie at one point. I’d love to be in a war movie, just so that when I’m 60, I can look back and have photographs of myself in the best shape of my life. I feel like it’s a good thing to do one of those in your career: where you look like a Greek god for a few months and then lose it all.

Who is an actor, writer or director you’d love to work with?

Leos Carax is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. He’s a French director who directed Mauvais Sang (1986), and is a total badass, and a genius, and a weirdo. I met him once at the Venice Film Festival. It was amazing. I’ve always wanted to work with him, and with Juliette Binoche, who was in that movie. I have had a crush on her since I was 10 years old. It would be great to work with both.

(© Kim Verbeck)

Sam Nivola Recommends…

I’m tuning into… I started watching Disclaimer the other day because my good friend Louis Partridge is in it. He is so brilliant, and the show is so good. It’s written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who is just a genius. There’s so much great TV in the world right now!

What I’m reading… I just finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I’ve read a few of his books, and loved them all. I’m currently about halfway through this book called Foundation by Isaac Asimov, the sci fi author. I’ve never been that into sci fi, I think mainly because most have has a movie series made of them that I’ve already seen, so I know what happens. I haven’t watched Foundation on Apple TV yet, and the books are awesome. I go through phases in my life of reading: reading a lot and then not reading at all for months. I’m in a phase of reading, and it feels good.

What I’m most looking forward to seeing… I really want to see Nosferatu, because I love both of the previous versions of it, and I’ve heard great things. I hear Lily Rose Depp is an amazing contortionist in it, and that sounds really cool. I’m excited for the Beatles biopic, and that Alex Garland war movie with Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini, all those guys. That looks pretty cool. There’s a lot of good stuff coming. I look forward to seeing whatever Brady Corbett does next, because I just saw The Brutalist. Brady is a friend of mine, and he’s a total badass and a genius, and everything he has done has been amazing. So I’m curious to see what’s next for him.

Favourite film of all time… Swingers by Jon Favreau

Band/singer I always have on repeat… The Beatles. I know it’s such a basic answer, but I really do listen to them religiously. I love a lot of Delta Mississippi Blues from the 30s and 40s, like Blind Willie McTell and Robert Johnson and all those guys. Sunhouse, they’re pretty damn amazing. I listen to them a lot.

WATCH

Sam Nivola stars as Lachlan Ratliff in The White Lotus season 3. New episodes air Sunday evenings in the US, and Monday evenings in the UK. Catch up on Now.

Find out exactly when and where to watch it here.