As if we weren’t already excited for new episodes of The White Lotus, star Theo James is talking up his (apparently frequent) nude scenes in the upcoming second season. How soon can we check in?
Fresh off of an Emmys sweep, HBO’s dark social satire returns this weekend, moving the action from its titular Hawaiian hotel to a sister resort in scenic Sicily. Series creator/writer/director Mike White returns behind the camera, as does Jennifer Coolidge’s hapless Tanya McQuoid (thank god), but the rest of this season’s guests are some fresh faces.
Among them is James as Cameron Babcock, a “well-endowed” businessman vacationing with his wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy) and another couple, Ethan and Harper (Will Sharpe and Aubrey Plaza). They’re all friends, sort of, but it’s clear there’s a lot of jealousy—and possibly other feelings?—brewing between them.
White has previously stated that Sicily would focus on sexual politics, and this tense foursome will be at the eye of the storm. Though we’ll perhaps never forget the first season’s *ahem* rimming scene between Murray Bartlett and Lukas Gage, the cast is teasing an even hotter season this go around with “a lot of sexuality.”
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In a new interview, James and Fahy previewed the season ahead and, apparently, it doesn’t take long for these couples to, um, let it all hang out. ET reports that James’ characters wastes precious little time stripping down to his birthday suit, “revealing everything in a surprising moment.”
In James’ words, said moment is “interesting [because] at first… we don’t know whether it’s deliberate or [if] it’s accidental. But it reveals itself.” Oh my, it sure sounds like it does!
Still, the actor shares that what we’ll ultimately see in the episode was a bit “toned down” compared to the original edit: “The initial version we shot was way too much. So, we did a more subtle version.” The cutting room floor strikes again!
But, fear not, plenty more acting-in-the-buff lies ahead on The White Lotus: Sicily.
James specifically singles out episode 5 as an important one that will reveal the “purpose” to all of his nudity. The actor—who has also delivered some “very naked” performances in The Time Traveler’s Wife and the PBS series Sanditon—jokes that “it is in my contract that I’m not allowed to do anything without being completely naked.”
Related: That BJ scene in ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ broke my brain
And he isn’t the only one: “It’s funny ’cause we’re all kind of naked,” the actor shares, “It’s a holiday show, really.”
The new season also stars F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, Adam DiMarco, Tom Hollander, Haley Lu Richardson, and Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore as the hotel manager, who—if we learned anything from season one—would be smart to avoid her guests’ luggage, if you know what we mean.
The White Lotus: Sicily premieres in HBO on Sunday, October 30. You can watch the trailer below.
Peter
Can’t wait for it to start.
bigrawtop
Sounds very straight. And any phallus will probably be a stunt dick.
bachy
Loved him in Sanditon (2019).
SK310
That rimming scene was so wack! Stop hailing it as some revolutionary moment, he literally just had his face on the guys upper back.
Bromancer7
Yeah…guaranteed to be a prosthetic or body double.