Jason Isaacs And Walton Goggins Just Mocked Those “White Lotus” Feud Rumors In The Cheekiest Way
This is how you shut down the “internet sleuths.”
You might’ve heard speculation that some of The White Lotus costars have fallen out based on comments from some of the series’ stars.
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic for HBO
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.
Ivan Apfel / Getty Images, MICHAEL TRAN / AFP via Getty Images
Jason played the wealthy hot-mess patriarch and North Carolina financier Timothy Ratliff in Season 3 of The White Lotus.
Courtesy of HBO
Walton played the vengeful and not-so-inquisitive boyfriend Rick Hatchett in the same season.
Courtesy of HBO
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.”
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic for HBO
“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.'”
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic for HBO
In March, Jason also told Vulture, “All the things you would imagine with a group of people unanchored from their home lives on the other side of the world, in the intense pressure cooker of the working environment with eye-melting heat and insects and late nights. They say in the show, ‘What happens in Thailand stays in Thailand,’ but there’s an offscreen White Lotus as well, with fewer deaths but just as much drama.”
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.”
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“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.'”
Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection
In Prime Video’s Fallout series, Walton also starred as Cooper Howard, aka Ghoul.
“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.'”
Jamie McCarthy / WireImage
“So, I lean into that. The people I look up to lean into that. And this guy — again, great actor — just couldn’t understand. ‘Why would someone do that?’ I thought, Why wouldn’t you?” Walton finished. “I bring that level of seriousness to everything I do. Comedy, drama — I take it all seriously. How many of these chances will I have? I want to squeeze as much life experience as I possibly can out of each one.”
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.
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“Guess who was on my plane?” the Harry Potter actor wrote in the Instagram caption.
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.
@therealjasonisaacs / Via Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/therealjasonisaacs/?hl=en
The university told CNN, “Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists.”
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.”
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He added, “Someone at Duke decided that was really untoward and was not happy with the association. Other people online were pointing out that there are real-life alumni of Duke to be far more worried about than a fictional alumni.”
I’m living for Jason and Walton’s cheeky era!
