You might’ve heard speculation that some of The White Lotus costars have fallen out based on comments from some of the series’ stars.
It’s fair to say the beef might not apply to Jason Isaacs and Walton Goggins, despite these two actors seemingly being the cause of the gossip train.
Jason played the wealthy hot-mess patriarch and North Carolina financier Timothy Ratliff in Season 3 of The White Lotus.
Walton played the vengeful and not-so-inquisitive boyfriend Rick Hatchett in the same season.
Funny enough, the endless speculation surrounding beef between The White Lotus cast came about from the internet over-investigating interview comments from these two actors.
In an interview with the Guardian, Jason described filming The White Lotus as a “theater camp, but to some extent an open prison camp,” adding, “You couldn’t avoid one other. There are tensions and difficulties, I don’t know if they spilled from on-screen to off-screen, or if it would have happened anyway. There were alliances that formed and broke, romances that formed and broke, friendships that formed and broke.”
“I can’t pretend I wasn’t involved in some off-screen drama…” Jason continued. “There were times when things were not quite so fond. I was in some ways used to it, but within a couple of weeks my wife [who was with him on set and used to be an actor] went, ‘Some of these people are fucking mad.’ I said, ‘No, it’s just a bunch of actors away on location, love. You’ve forgotten what it’s like.'”
Similarly, Walton talked about his experience for Cultured, saying, “Someone I worked with on The White Lotus didn’t fully understand my process,” he admitted. “My character — Rick Hatchett — he’s isolated. So during filming, I was isolated. I liked mirroring that, but it was emotionally difficult.”
“Then, a few months into The White Lotus, Fallout premiered and started to take off. One day, this actor I was working with — nice guy, good actor — came up to me and said, ‘You’re brilliant in Fallout. Please tell me you had a good time making that.'”
“I just stared at him,” Walton continued. “Because he didn’t get it. I don’t care how good you are — if you don’t understand that there’s a world beyond the script, if you don’t give yourself over to it, then you’re missing something profound in this work. This is the drug. I said: ‘No. I play a guy who’s lived for 200 years and seen the worst of humanity. Every day was fucking horrible.’ He just stared back at me like: ‘OK, wow.'”
However, on May 3, Jason shared two photos on Instagram to put the speculation to rest that there’s any beef between him and Walton at least.
Jason also called out the internet rumor mill, writing, “Hey, all you genius online sleuths — see any beef?!! #RicksAlive!!!”
Walton shared the same photo on his Instagram story, writing, “Got to hug Timothy Ratliff yesterday.”
In Jason’s Instagram post, he also tagged the official account for Duke University, where his character, Timothy, went to college and wore a T-shirt with the school’s logo. After his character imagined a murder-suicide while wearing the Duke shirt, the university released a statement condemning the episode.
Jason told Rob Lowe on the Literally! With Rob Lowe podcast that he was “pretty sure they got it cleared because, as you know, you don’t ever go on television without getting all the logos cleared.”
I’m living for Jason and Walton’s cheeky era!