If you’re a fan of The White Lotus and have been tuning in to season 3 of the show, then you were likely as surprised as us with Sam Rockwell’s guest-star appearance in episode 5. After all, with a show all about the growing tensions between the characters, we weren’t exactly expecting to meet an entirely new character, let alone one played by an Oscar winner.
But, given that Rockwell is a longtime partner to Leslie Bibb, who is playing Kate on the show, and is best friends with Walton Goggins, who plays Rick, it’s no wonder he decided to make an appearance.
Talking about the decision to Entertainment Weekly, however, Bibb clarified that it wasn’t her idea to call him.
“No, [production] came to me and they were like, ‘We’re going to offer this to Sam,’” Bibb, who has been dating Rockwell since 2007, told the outlet. “I was on the treadmill and [producer] Dave Bernad came to me. But I was like, ‘Sam is wild as a buck. Listen, I don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s doing a movie in South Africa, he likes time to prep.’ And he was very nervous about that prep time.”
Overall, it seemed Bibb was concerned that Rockwell wouldn’t be willing to make the trek from South Africa to Thailand for just a few days.
“I said [to producers], ‘You can’t get mad at me if he says no. What if he says no?’ I was so scared!” she said. “Then [creator] Mike [White] was like, ‘No, no, no, we won’t get mad at you.’”
Luckily, Rockwell did indeed take on the challenge. After all, what’s not to love about a quick getaway in Thailand with your other half?
“It was really fun,” she said of having him there. “We don’t have any scenes together, and he did all of his stuff in eight days. We were there for six months, Sam was there for eight days — Sam did not have the same experience in eight days. He got The White Lotus light.”
“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,” Bibb gushed of Rockwell. “Mike was really happy to have him too.”
Goggins appreciated the moment too. “We know each other’s ticks, and he’s my hero, I don’t want to let him down,” Goggins told Entertainment Weekly of their scenes together. “But I want to play with him. And two minutes into the first conversation we had, it was like, ‘Ohhhh, okay, now we can go anywhere, now we can do anything. It was the best time that I had really working on all of The White Lotus, working with him and those scenes.”
On the show, Rockwell plays Rick’s old friend Frank. When visiting Bangkok, Rick called him for a favor and to share a drink to catch up.
As they sat down, however, Frank got candid about being sober, going through sex addiction and becoming a Buddhist. “Am I a middle-aged white guy on the inside too? Or inside, could I be an Asian girl?” Frank wondered to Rick. “I don’t know. Guess I was trying to f— my way to the answer. Then I realized I’ve got to stop the drugs, the girls, trying to be a girl, I got into Buddhism.”
Rick, just like viewers at home, were left speechless. Talk about an Emmy-winning cameo!
Before you go, click here to see celebrity couples who never felt the need to get married.
