Warning: This post contains spoilers for episode five of The White Lotus.
The White Lotus saved one of its biggest casting reveals for its sojourn to Bangkok.
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During Sunday’s fifth episode, Oscar-winning star Sam Rockwell made an unforgettable appearance as Frank, the longtime friend of Rick (Walton Goggins), who reconnects with the troubled traveler as Rick seeks vengeance on the man Rick believes killed his father. Now sober, Frank shares with Rick his experiences in Thailand, including the fresh perspective he has gotten about his sexuality. The lengthy monologue already has several The White Lotus fans calling for Rockwell to earn his first Emmy Award as a guest actor in a drama series.
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“I think initially there was someone else that was going to play this, and so when that didn’t work out for whatever reason, it was really only one person—and that was Sam Rockwell,” Goggins explained in an interview with Vanity Fair. Goggins and Rockwell have a friendship offscreen that dates back 15 years to the feature film Cowboys & Aliens. (Rockwell is also married to The White Lotus co-star and fellow Emmy Award contender Leslie Bibb.)
According to Goggins, his close bond with Rockwell was a blessing and a curse partly because “Sam is my hero.”
“He’s really one of the guys in my generation that I look up to, and he knows that. So coming into this experience, there was a certain amount of anxiety, meaning I didn’t want to let my friend down,” Goggins told the legacy publication.
However, their off-screen friendship also played out onscreen, since Rick and Frank are supposed to be longtime pals as well. “We talked a lot right before he got there about what that relationship symbolizes, where they fit into each other’s lives. And the very first day on the set, there was a comfort and a level of listening and respect and genuine love and affection for each other that permeates their entire friendship,” Goggins said.
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bibb said Rockwell only appeared on set for eight days of the show’s six-month shoot. However, he fit right in with the show’s murderer’s row of performers. “It’s nice to be able to have a context to share, and I think he’s a great actor, and we’re lucky to have him, and I think he chewed up that character,” she said.
“I’ve watched the scene so many times. It continues to get better each time,” Goggins’s and Rockwell’s costar Patrick Schwarzenegger wrote on social media. “Brilliant performance. And brilliant listening from Walton.”
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Rick’s journey during this season of The White Lotus has already taken some detours beyond the expected. The character arrived on the show with his younger partner, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). Initially, it seemed like their relationship would be the type of May-December entanglement ripe for mockery and satire. However, Rick and Chelsea have proven quite loyal to each other throughout the season, with Rick slowly allowing people around him to understand the deep pain he feels about losing his dad, a trauma so debilitating that he’s now considering murder as a form of revenge. That’s where Frank comes into play, and the characters will again share the screen in the show’s sixth episode next week.
Since its debut season, The White Lotus has become an Emmy juggernaut for HBO. The series received 43 nominations for its two previous seasons and 15 wins. Mike White’s drama is expected to again dominate the drama categories this year, with Goggins and now Rockwell among several of its actors widely predicted to receive acting nominations. Even one of the show’s top competitors is a fan. After Sunday’s episode, Severance executive producer and principal series director Ben Stiller expressed his admiration for White and his talented actors.
“Mike White is such a brilliant filmmaker, and Sam Rockwell and Goggins are in that scene,” Stiller wrote on social media alongside several raised hand emojis. “Doesn’t get better.”
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The White Lotus airs Sundays on HBO.
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