It’s the crossover you never expected.
Sam Nivola, known for his role as young Lochlan Ratliff in Season 3 of The White Lotus, disclosed that the show’s creator, Mike White, suggested he and his fellow cast members seek inspiration from an unexpected source prior to the upcoming season: the reality show Southern Charm.
“Mike advised us to watch Southern Charm,” revealed Nivola to People. “In fact, Jason Isaacs, who portrayed our father, based his entire accent and character on [the show’s cast].”
The Ratliff family is just one of the colorful groups of characters staying at The White Lotus resort in Thailand for this season. Isaacs and Parker Posey take on the roles of the Ratliff parents, a proud southern family concealing their own secrets, while Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Patrick Schwarzenegger portray their children entangled in a complex relationship.
White recommended they turn to the Bravo series – which follows the lives of socialites in Charleston, South Carolina, as they navigate dating, business, and each other’s drama – to nail their characters’ accents before Season 3.
Nivola added that Hook, who plays his sister in Season 3, did not have to watch the Bravo reality series for research because she already “had it down.”
“I’m from Alabama,” she said. “I found out through you guys. I was like, ‘He didn’t tell me to watch Southern Charm! I’m feeling left out.’”
Isaacs has previously revealed before that he studied the Durham, North Carolina accent to play Timothy Ratliff, whose financial career and privileged life could be crumbling away after he gets tied up in a former business partner’s illegal activities. His character’s behavior seems very Thomas Ravenel-coded, except for his specific accent.
It’s difficult to imagine Harry Potter‘s Lucius Malfoy watching Shep Rose and Craig Conover‘s messy love lives to prepare for one of HBO’s most prestigious series, but the research paid off: His and Posey’s dramatic Southern accents have certainly become a hot topic since the Season 3 premiere.
Hook recently told DECIDER that it was difficult to get through scenes with Posey due to her “singular” performance as Victoria Ratliff.
Hook said, “I wasn’t sure they were going to get like a clean take of me in that scene because I was like, ‘Are you sure you got it?’ Like, I was just laughing the whole time.”
New episodes of The White Lotus air at 9/8c on HBO and Max.
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