White Lotus star Jason Isaacs has clarified comments he made about “drama” on the set of the popular show.
Isaacs, 61, plays Timothy Ratliff, the patriarch of a wealthy family and father of Saxon Ratliff (played by Patrick Schwarzenegger). The new season of the dark comedy was set in another luxury hotel - this time in Thailand.
The British actor had previously described his experience working on the show as “a cross between summer camp and Lord of the Flies but in a gilded cage,” in an interview with Vulture.
He added there had been “friendships that were made and friendships that were lost”. He also called out a “double standard” in questioning when asked if he had used a prosthetic penis during shooting, insisting women would not be asked that question.
Mike White, the show’s creator, also hit out at the show’s composer, Tapia de Veer, for quitting. De Veer said: “We already had our last fight forever.”
Isaacs addressed these comments, which many interpreted as signalling tension or ongoing feuds on set.
“Like anywhere you go for the summer, there’s friendships, there’s romances, there’s arguments, there’s cliques that form and break and reform and stuff like that. I’m careful,” he toldThe Happy Hour podcast. “I’m not stupid. I look at the internet.”
He added: “Nobody has the slightest clue what they’re talking about. People who think they’re onto something, and it then gets magnified because of a thousand other people. Nobody has any clue.”
He went on to clarify his earlier comments saying: “First of all, it’s none of your business. I’m just saying it wasn’t a holiday, and partly I started saying that because people think we were on a seven-month holiday, and believe me, it felt like work a lot of the time. It was insanely hot and there’s all the normal social tensions you get anywhere.”
In his previous comments to Vulture, Isaacs had said: “They say in the show, ‘What happens in Thailand stays in Thailand,’ but there’s an off-screen White Lotus as well, with fewer deaths but just as much drama.”
About his statement on “double standards” for men, the star backtracked and told Variety: “I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all.”
At the time, Isaacs had said on CBS Mornings: “I think it’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men, but when women are naked, Margaret Qualley in The Substance, no one would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, it’s odd that there’s a double standard.”
