Patrick Schwarzenegger had a visceral reaction to filming that incestous kiss with Sam Nivola on The White Lotus.
During an interview with Vulture on Monday, March 17, fellow White Lotus star Charlotte Le Bon recalled being present when Schwarzenegger, 31, and Nivola, 21, filmed the intimate moment, saying, “Well obviously they’re not brothers by blood, so that made it easier.”
Le Bon, 38, said Schwarzenegger, 31, needed some encouragement, adding, “I think for Patrick it was really difficult. For Sam, he was kind of like, ‘It’s whatever, let’s just do it well one time and it will be over.’ Because if you don’t do it well the first time, then you have to do it over and over again.”
While watching the scene back, Le Bon noted that Schwarzenegger’s reaction in the episode is “his genuine reaction.”
“We all thought he was going to throw up,” she quipped. “And Sam was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s just a kiss, calm down!’”
The moment between Schwarzenegger’s Saxon and Nivola’s Lochlan was hinted at — but many fans didn’t think the show would go there. During the Sunday, March 16, episode of the hit HBO series, however, Lochlan and Saxon kissed while under the influence of drugs and alcohol at a party with Chloe and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood).
“We didn’t really talk about it at all until we shot the scene. My character’s big turning point is that moment at the end of episode 5,” Nivola, 21, told GQ on Sunday. “We shot it a few different ways, and we talked about it a lot. I think at the end of the day, it was supposed to just be like they’re all really f—ed up, and, of course, kissing your brother is incredibly wrong and weird and gross. But I think as is the case with The White Lotus, it’s like these crazy actions and sort of heightened reality coming from really real emotions that are actually really relatable to your everyday guy.”
Nivola broke down the “really complicated” scene from his character’s perspective.
“He just is desperate for his brother’s approval, and he’s out doing this partying drug thing with Saxon, which is a thing that Saxon keeps talking about, and all he talks about is sex. He’s like, ‘Sex is the main point of life. You need to get laid. That’s what you need,’” he explained. “I’m like, ‘OK. Well, in this charged sexual environment, what can I do to make you notice me and get you to approve of me?’ And then, he does the wrong thing to make that happen.”
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The actor praised creator Mike White for his help bringing the scenes to life, adding, “What we wound up deciding is we’re going to let our instincts and Mike’s direction take the reins and let the audience interpret this weird thing that we have going on, because that’s the way of movies and TV. And also, the way Mike directs is very loose, which I love. He never comes into a day of work like, ‘This is exactly what I want, and if I don’t get that, I’m going to be mad.’”
Nivola continued: “He’s always coming up with ideas. So you as the actor have to really be yourself, not married to anything. You have to be ready to adapt and change your performance depending on what he winds up choosing on the day. So we also didn’t want to make any hard and fast decisions about what we wanted the dynamic to be until we were on set.”
New episodes of The White Lotus air on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
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