{"id":177000,"date":"2025-06-12T00:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177000\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T00:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:13:11","slug":"why-the-white-lotuss-jason-isaacs-almost-turned-down-the-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177000\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ‘The White Lotus’s Jason Isaacs Almost Turned Down The Role"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJason Isaacs<\/a> made his movie debut in 1989, in British romcom The Tall Guy, and has worked solidly ever since. He\u2019s used to being recognized, mostly for his role as Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter, but also for his small-screen work in Star Wars and Star Trek spin-offs. He expects that, given the fanatical audiences they attract, but he\u2019s been blindsided by the amount of attention he\u2019s had since the April finale of Mike White\u2019s hit HBO show The White Lotus<\/a>, in which he plays shady U.S. businessman Tim Ratliff.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor the last few weeks, I\u2019ve been recognized a lot, and in the most surprising places,\u201d notes the deadpan 62-year-old Brit as he makes short work of a mushroom donburi at London\u2019s White City House. \u201cBut that\u2019s what usually happens: I\u2019ll be recognized for a few weeks, and then it stops. I clearly have a kind of anonymous face, because I get the tube every day, I go to the supermarket, I walk down the street and maybe there\u2019s occasionally a kind of double-take when I\u2019m 50 yards past someone, and they\u2019ll say, \u2018Wasn\u2019t that some bloke from a thing?\u2019 But people forget very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTim Ratliff, though, will not go so quietly: The tycoon trapped in a loveless marriage, tormented by a past crime that\u2019s coming back to bite him, and driven to consider the ultimate crime, famicide, using the seeds of the deadly pong-pong fruit. \u201cGranted, it\u2019s my duty to talk about the show,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve noticed that the more I\u2019ve talked about it, the more I\u2019ve thought about it, and the more I\u2019ve appreciated the depth of Mike\u2019s writing, and the opportunity he gave us to tell such complicated, nuanced stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jason<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIsaacs with Parker Posey<\/a> in \u2018The White Lotus\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFabio Lovino\/HBO<\/p>\n

\n\tHe must be bored, though, of all the old questions; about the nudity, the on-set tensions and the spat with Duke University, whose college gear Ratliff wears to bed? Surely, he won\u2019t want to touch them with a bargepole now? \u201cI don\u2019t mind touching them,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cThe thing is, this brilliant story has captured so many people\u2019s imaginations. And it\u2019s not just their imaginations, it\u2019s not just that they appreciated a story outside themself. They found themselves living vicariously through these extraordinary characters, or these ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, and they were stimulated and provoked to think about their own life choices, I hop if not consciously, then unconsciously. I thought Mike went much deeper even than the previous shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m so happy to be associated with something like that,\u201d he continues, \u201cbecause it has meant so much to so many people. Maybe because we all miss the community noticeboard. Maybe because we\u2019re all living in our own silos, maybe because the world is becoming darker, and more fractured, and the show provided a little oasis for people for eight weeks. But one of the shames, possibly, is that in deconstructing it \u2014 and talking about how we made it, and who we are, and how we are with each other \u2014 it takes away from the power of what Mike did, and what those characters in those stories do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPeople shouldn\u2019t watch a screen and know whether someone\u2019s straight or gay or Jewish or Catholic or what their political beliefs are. My favorite way to watch a movie or a TV show is to know nothing about what the story is going to be beforehand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Isaacs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tIsaacs freely admits that he was not the first choice for the role when he was first contacted. \u201cI was in New York publicizing the Cary Grant miniseries Archie,\u201d he recalls, \u201cand so I was on a high, doing interviews all day. And then I got a call saying, \u2018Mike White is interested in you for The White Lotus, but you\u2019re going to have to put yourself on tape.\u2019 And that\u2019s an unusual experience for me, not because I think I\u2019m better than that, but because people either offer me parts they think I can do, or they just ignore me, and I\u2019m not on those lists. So, it was a novel experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt had been a long time. And in order to get to the casting director\u2019s office, he had to walk through Times Square, where his face was on gigantic billboards, constantly advertising him as Cary Grant. He laughs. \u201cNot that I need humbling, ever \u2014 my wife and kids and dog do that \u2014 but should anyone else have been looking at me, they would\u2019ve been reminded of where the actor really lives on the great totem pole of showbusiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe audition was a disaster (\u201cI was every bit as nervous and fumbly and stumbly and flushed and convinced I\u2019ve blown it as I was when I first did 30 years ago,\u201d he recalls). Nevertheless, he got the job, and his first act was to \u201cmake good\u201d the lie he\u2019d told them. \u201cI\u2019d said that it was my favorite show, that I thought it was a work of brilliance, and that Mike was a genius. Now, I do think Mike\u2019s a magnificent writer and director, because I\u2019ve followed him since I was at Sundance when he first emerged with Chuck & Buck. I\u2019d watched everything he\u2019d done film-wise ever since, but I hadn\u2019t seen The White Lotus. So, of course, I watched it, and I became a huge fan after the fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen he got the script, Isaacs immediately understood why several others had turned it down. Why? \u201cBecause Tim\u2019s a guy who\u2019s out of his head for five or six episodes on downers, not on entertaining uppers like Murray Bartlett was in Season 1. And with virtually no words to communicate this enormous story he\u2019s got. I mean, the story of the three friends on holiday is completely relatable. But this is the story is of a billionaire losing all status in life. Many people go to Thailand in search of genuine spiritual enlightenment, but the last thing in the world he wants is to be stripped down to the bare essence of his soul, to review his entire life and see it fall apart in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jason<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHBO<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHis money and power and influence have always managed to solve his problems before, but those things are useless here. And he\u2019s facing a personal apocalypse, having to look at his children and his wife and realize that they, too, are going to be cast into the abyss. To do all that, with no words, while taking pills that make you fall asleep, felt like a pretty big challenge. I was worried about two things: Was I good enough \u2014 and was it even possible?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was his strategy in the end? He laughs. \u201cOh, f*ck knows. I don\u2019t know. I mean I\u2019m an actor \u2014 I was scared of it, and then I thought I\u2019d try and do it. There are different types of actors. There are some people who plan everything, and you find \u2014 with young actors particularly \u2014 that they\u2019ve often given their most magnificent performance already, in their bathroom mirror, and that\u2019s what they\u2019re going to do in front of you. You could spontaneously combust, you could strangle a dog, and they wouldn\u2019t blink. But, for me, I want to be in the moment. I cross out any words in the script that tell me what I\u2019m thinking, whether I\u2019m angry, or whether I\u2019m sad. I just want to be able to feel it. It\u2019s not the stuff that\u2019s written down on the page. So, I had always to know everything that Tim was thinking. You need to have the life and the backstory in your head, always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd how did that work out with Parker Posey, who plays Victoria, his wife? \u201cWell, we don\u2019t really communicate,\u201d he says, \u201cat least not on camera. Tim and Victoria lost each other a long time ago, but when we arrive at the White Lotus he\u2019s still loyal to her. But the whole family regard her as a bit of a joke, because she\u2019s been lost to prescription drugs a long time ago. So we didn\u2019t have to talk about what our backgrounds were, because our life experiences at that point are so different, and our thoughts about each other are so different, and our expectations are so different that we did our own thing, in many ways. And then I swap out with her: I\u2019m out of it, and she\u2019s becoming more and more hysterical as the pills that calm her down have disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVictoria doesn\u2019t have quite the same dramatic character arc as Tim, but she does get her own spectacular diva moment during a scene in which one of the other guests \u2014 wealthy Texan holidaymaker Kate, played by Leslie Bibb \u2014 accosts her at the breakfast table and reminds her that they\u2019ve met before. Victoria\u2019s froideur deserves a series of his own \u2014 but what was behind it? <\/p>\n

\u201cI was there that day,\u201d says Isaacs. \u201cYou have to remember that these are people that travel by private plane. They don\u2019t go to hotels, they\u2019re slumming it at the White Lotus. There was a line that was cut from the scene where we arrive; the hotel manager says, \u2018How was your journey?\u2019 and I say, \u2018Long layover in Doha. But, hey, we flew commercial. Save the planet!\u2019 As if I wanted credit for not flying in our private plane! That\u2019s the kind of people we are. So, Victoria wants to spend some away with her kids, who she doesn\u2019t see very much, and she does not want to have to make small-talk with some random stranger. And she\u2019s powerful, and snotty, and maybe blinkered enough \u2014 or just plain arrogant enough \u2014 to think, \u2018No, I\u2019m not talking to you. I don\u2019t want to have be in conversation with you for a week.\u2019 And that\u2019s all it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNevertheless, such mysteries, deliberately left in the script by White, created outlandish speculative online gossip and meant that reporting on The White Lotus frequently blurred the line between fact and fiction. \u201cBy god, were there some crazy theories online, just like there were theories about the [real-life] relationships between the cast that are all wrong. But it just shows how much interest there was. That, I didn\u2019t expect, but it was interesting to behold. What was fascinating, and slightly more worrying, was to see how proper websites, proper journalists \u2014 because they needed to have something about White Lotus every day \u2014 would just make stuff up. There was an interview I read somewhere with me that I never even gave, saying things I would never have said. Not even lies, just utter fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne online scuffle that he did enjoy was with Duke University, who claimed the show had brought their institution into disrepute by making Ratliff an alumni. \u201cI did stir the pot slightly,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI was stuck at Charlotte airport. My bags didn\u2019t arrive, so I had to buy a T-shirt and all that was there was a Duke outlet. I bought one that didn\u2019t have the word Duke on it, just the symbol. But even that caused a lot of trouble. I thought it was entertainingly ridiculous that they made a fuss, because, clearly, the T-shirt I wore in the show would\u2019ve been cleared. So it wasn\u2019t like it was a breach of anything. And, besides, they have some extraordinary real-life alumni that they should be slightly more worried about than a fictitious character who, in the end, finds spiritual enlightenment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead the digital edition of Deadline\u2019s Emmy Preview magazine here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIsaacs has been talking now for the best part of an hour, and though he speaks, self-deprecatingly, about \u201ctalking about myself endlessly\u201d, he actually doesn\u2019t do that. \u201cI\u2019ll talk about myself a bit and it feels flattering,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut there\u2019s a part of me that grew up admiring that famous generation of \u201970s actors \u2014 like Pacino, De Niro, Hoffman, the great Gene Hackman \u2014 and I knew nothing about them. It really helped me suspend my disbelief. I\u2019m asked about my accent a lot, because that also went viral too for a while, but the truth is, I don\u2019t want people to think about where I\u2019m from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople shouldn\u2019t watch a screen and know whether someone\u2019s straight or gay or Jewish or Catholic or what their political beliefs are,\u201d he says, as the conversation closes. \u201cMy favorite way to watch a movie or a TV show is to know nothing about what the story is going to be beforehand. To not read a preview. To be at a film festival when someone says, \u2018I\u2019ve got a spare ticket for something that starts in a minute\u2026\u2019 And you go in, and suddenly this big screen lights up, and you\u2019re in someone else\u2019s world for two hours. I wish people could just watch stories like that, and that we didn\u2019t have to unpack everything for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Isaacs made his movie debut in 1989, in British romcom The Tall Guy, and has worked solidly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,7844,73067,2678,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-177000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jason-isaacs","11":"tag-parker-posey","12":"tag-the-white-lotus","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114667507449285314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}