Jason Isaacs has revealed that filming the third season of The White Lotus was anything but relaxing, describing it as a chaotic experience filled with off-camera drama, clashing personalities, and frayed relationships.
The British actor, best known for playing Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter, stars as Timothy Ratfliff in the new season of the hit HBO show, set in Thailand.
But while the series is known for its glamorous resort settings, Isaacs said the real life on set was far from idyllic in resurfaced remarks.
According to the actor, the drawn-out production led to “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,” he told The Guardian. “There were times when things were not quite so fond.”
Isaacs explained that the cast, which includes Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook as his character’s family, lived together on location for a gruelling seven-month shoot.
“It was a theatre camp, but to some extent an open prison camp,” he said. “You couldn’t avoid one another. 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.”
His wife, BBC documentary maker Emma Hewitt, visited him during the shoot and was quick to spot the friction.
“Within a couple of weeks my wife went, ‘Some of these people are f***ing mad.’ I said, ‘No, it’s just a bunch of actors away on location, love. You’ve forgotten what it’s like.’”
Isaacs previously described the production environment to Sharp as “a cross between high school and Lord of the Flies,” explaining how being isolated in a luxury resort didn’t stop tensions from escalating.
“Sometimes, it was two weeks of night shoots and then you see each other all day every day,” he said.
“In that time, it’s incredibly hot – not fun hot, holiday hot – we’re in costume and makeup, and we’re not meant to get a tan or lie by the pool, and you can only have so many massages.”
He suggested that the high-pressure environment, being far from family, and the temptations of “an open bar and all the wildness being in Thailand allows,” only intensified the strain.
Isaacs said the whole setup was by design, with creator Mike White purposefully crafting a “pressure cooker atmosphere” not only for the plot, but for the cast living it.
