It isn’t The White Lotus unless there’s a man filming a full frontal scene — and season 3 is Jason Isaacs‘ turn.
During the Sunday, March 9, episode of The White Lotus, Timothy (Isaacs) is spiraling about his money problems and how he will probably be sent to prison for money laundering and bribery when he returns to the U.S. Timothy tries to take his mind off the inevitable by stealing wife Victoria’s (Parker Posey) anti-anxiety meds, which causes him to accidentally flash his family when his robe pops open.
“Yeah, it is now in my contract for every show I do, so we’ll see,” Isaacs, 61, joked to Entertainment Weekly. “It’ll get easier, hopefully.”
Isaacs broke down how Timothy’s state of mind contributed to the funny moment. “He’s drugging himself into a stupor to try not to think about the fact that his entire life is blowing up and trying to work out what to do about it,” he noted. “It was actually quite challenging — I remember reading the scripts thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve got to keep my powder dry for five or six episodes, and then this s–t really kicks off.’”
He continued: “You haven’t seen other things that are coming, but I just remember thinking, ‘I better dig deep and produce something here.’ Because there’s a lot of parts you can go through and tell a very dramatic story without your character going through anything extreme. But there’s some big, old acting coming up.”
Isaacs compared Timothy’s arc to a “Shakespearean tragedy” as it continues to unfold on screen. “He’s been bottling it up for a very long time,” he explained. “There is a point coming when they leave — if they make it and they’re alive, because who knows — but it’s going to be unavoidable, the big secret he has been harboring.”
Jason Isaacs in ‘The White Lotus.’ HBO
The brief moment of humor with Timothy exposing himself meant Isaacs had to “go big or go home,” saying, “I don’t know how I pulled it off. The audience will see whether I did or not. … You’ve got to get there. I mean, you’ve got to be as real as you can. And yeah, there was some inner gear changes required.”
Patrick Schwarzenegger got in on the fun, adding in the joint EW interview with Isaacs, “You should be asking what it was like for us to watch it.”
Schwarzenegger, 31, is no stranger to undressing for the hit HBO series. He filmed a nude scene during the premiere and even Schwarzenegger’s brother-in-law Chris Pratt had something to say.
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“I know where my eyes went,” Pratt, 45, joked during an interview with E! News last month. “I’m not blood related to him, I was looking at that d—, bro.”
Pratt, who is married to Katherine Schwarzenegger, praised Patrick’s new role, adding, “No, he looks amazing. Obviously, he’s a physical specimen, but also he’s a really solid actor because the character he’s playing is completely different than who he is.”
Before Patrick and Isaacs had the honor of filming such a scene-stealing moment, Theo James from the second season and Steve Zahn in season 1 were chosen. There were also memorable sex scenes featuring Leo Woodall, Lukas Gage and Murray Bartlett, respectively.
New episodes of The White Lotus air on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
