Sam Nivola had the time of his life working with Mike White on The White Lotus.
The third season of the lush drama was the largest project the 21-year old actor has ever worked on, and it’s an experience he won’t ever forget, partly thanks to the incredible list of talent and creatives he had the opportunity to work alongside. Before traveling to Thailand to portray youngest Ratliff sibling Lochlan, Nivola landed parts in the Bradley Cooper-starring Maestro and Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, which carries a similar murderous vibe, though White Lotus was his first standout role as an actor.
There’s no denying that Nivola’s career has swelled since The White Lotus, and he thanks White (who he says he would “jump off the Empire State Building for”) and his co-stars (all “legends”) for the lessons he was able to learn so early on in his career.
As Emmys voting kicked off last Friday, Nivola jumped on the phone with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the advice a White Lotus season two alum gave him before heading to Thailand, why working with White was (and always will be) the best and if he ever thought about dropping out of the show after reading the scandalous scripts.
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Looking back, what did you think that your White Lotus experience and its impact would be, and how did that compare to the reality of what came from the show?
Well, they were very different. It’s funny, Jason Isaacs, who obviously played my father, is such a contrarian. He loves to say the opposite of whatever everyone’s thinking, so he was very much a proponent of always setting your expectations below. The first two seasons were massive hits, but Jennifer Coolidge was a real reason behind that and she’s not in this one, blah blah blah and all this stuff. I think probably people in the second season were feeling that too. It’s a whole different cast every time and it’s not as easy to count on it being a mega hit every time. But also, none of us really were thinking much about that. Not to put us all on a pedestal, but we were really just having tons of fun, trying to enjoy the experience and enjoy getting to work with such amazing writing and director in Mike [White]. The reaction of the show has been unfathomably large, and it has totally changed my life in a way that I don’t think I could have ever expected.
One thing that David Bernad said when The Hollywood Reporter did the White Lotus cover story was that when the scripts were being sent to you and Patrick [Schwarzenegger], he and Mike were both panicked about you guys potentially dropping out. Were you aware of their anxiety around this issue, and do you think that was justified?
No way. In what world would I ever drop out of The White Lotus! No fucking way, no! I mean, it’s the juiciest story, and we’re also actors. It’s not like I actually had to fucking have sex with my brother. I think it was a great and an exciting opportunity to do something that sort of has never been done on TV, in the way that Mike did it. I was stoked when I read the script and I would never, even in a million years, imagine thinking of dropping out of something made by Mike and Dave. They’re just the best.
As we know, Mike doesn’t supply a lot of backstory for his characters, and he’s also not really precious about what his actors bring to their parts. So for you, what pieces of Lochlan and his backstory did you bring to the character?
I’m 21, I’m still sort of figuring out my method. It was such a lucky experience getting to work with this ensemble because all of these seasoned actors have very different ways of going about performing, and everyone has a different method. So I was able to learn, take bits and pieces from everyone else’s method. I don’t generally do a lot of background work on my character. When I’m preparing for a role, I really just focus on the script, what’s in the scene and what’s happening to the character in the present moment, and how to best prepare myself to react naturally in that moment. So I didn’t do a lot of world building around my character. But I did make some assumptions, like the fact that I assumed that we [Ratliff kids] had spent a lot of time with babysitters, that we were dealing with a lot of money, and that mom was probably always pulled out, and dad was probably always working. I assumed a certain disconnect between us and the parents, that we were not as close with them as the average group of kids is with their parents. I assumed certain things about how we were brought up, just based on the amount of money that we have, which obviously sets us apart from the average family.
Your TV sister, Sarah Catherine [Hook], has talked about an important sex scene that was cut. Leslie Bibb is still sad about her dream sequence on the cutting room floor. What scene that you filmed do you miss the most from the scraps pile?
I feel quite lucky in that I think lots of my biggest scenes were pretty important to the development of the story and the progression of the plot, so I didn’t have that much cut. I don’t think I had any big scenes [cut] in their entirety. They trimmed scenes that I was in where they would cut unnecessary lines from the middle of the scene, which is something I’m not that used to seeing, but it makes sense because we shot so much [and] they were so pressed for time that buying a few seconds here and there is totally worthwhile.
The scene when me and Sarah Catherine are on the beach talking, I can’t remember whether we’re on our way to the temple or on our way back, there was a whole middle section that they cut out where she basically says, “I don’t think you should stay at the temple. I think we should not spend as much time together, because the whole vibe of our family is like our mom has taught us — that everyone is out to get us and we just have to be insular and rely on each other, and it’s just super incestuous, you know what I mean?” And she uses that word [incestuous] as a sort of general meaning, like we spend too much time with each other, and I immediately assume that Patrick[‘s Saxon] told her about what happened on the boat, and I’m like, “Oh, fuck, did he tell you?” And she’s like, “What? What do you mean?” I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know, what do you mean?” (Laughs) It’s a total misunderstanding where I think she knows what happened, but that’s the only one that I can think of that got cut.
That’s so interesting.
Yeah, but I think it was smart to cut it because it sort of is too clarifying. It’s not mysterious enough for the circumstance.
You spent six-plus months with some amazing vets on set, be that Parker [Posey] or Walton [Goggins] or Jason, etc. What morals of wisdom and advice did you pick up from them while working on this show along the way?
I learned very different things from all of those legends, some of which were in direct opposition with each other. Everyone has such different ways of doing it, and that’s part of what’s so amazing about acting to me. I’m a college dropout, [and] this methodology of acting is something that, of course, can be taught in drama schools, but a lot of the time it is not taught. A lot of the time actors are sort of putting together these pieces of how we like to do our job over the course of our careers, and they become very personalized and unique.
Jason was very fly by the seat of [his] pants. He would do all the work on the character beforehand, like a month before we started shooting. He got his accent down, he came up with a good backstory and figured it all out, and then didn’t look at the script until the morning we would shoot every scene. He would memorize his lines in the makeup chair so that he was prepared, but his performance was spontaneous; whereas Parker [Posey] was much more rehearsed. Every time I’d see her at the pool, she had her binder out and was going through every line and rehearsing different ways to say specific lines. Walton always told me to trust yourself and have faith in yourself and confidence; Patrick and Sarah Catherine taught me things. I think I was the youngest person on that set and it was a really amazing opportunity to learn from just about everyone there [who] has more experience than me in this industry.
There’s going to be a fourth season of The White Lotus. I’m curious what your advice would be for the next batch of actors, and is there anything that you now know that you wish you had known when you were starting out getting ready to shoot the show?
I’d say get your mental health in order, because it is tough being that far away from home for that long. That has no bearing on the job itself, which is the most fun thing in the world. But inevitably, when you’re away from home for that long, there are certain challenges. In terms of the actual work, I would say you need no advice. I met with Adam DiMarco, who played a very parallel role to mine in the second season, before I went away to shoot. I was like, “Do you have any advice? Like, what’s Mike like? What’s his annoying thing and how do you work around it?” Because every director has one. And he was like, “There is nothing, he’s just great.” I was like, “Okay, dude. There’s no cameras rolling, no one’s listening, tell me what’s actually wrong with him because there’s something wrong with everyone.” He was like, “No, I swear to God, there’s nothing wrong with him.” I thought he was just a kiss ass (Laughs), there’s gotta be bullshit. And it turned out he was absolutely right, there is nothing wrong with Mike. He’s the most generous, amazing leader of a crew, a set and a story, and whoever is lucky enough to get these parts in the next season, just soak it in and enjoy it. Because even at this young age, I can say I think it’s unlikely that you’ll ever find someone as amazing as him again.
How are the incoming calls and scripts different on the other side of The White Lotus?
I sort of thought I would just be getting parts left and right, which I am in smaller indie movies — if they ever get funding, I’m really stoked about them — but it’s actually made all my casting processes a bit harder, because now I’m sort of in a different bracket of projects that I’m going up for where they’re all the highest profile, NDA things of the year. So now I’m in competition with all of the greatest and most successful, popular actors of my age group, and it’s been intimidating and a sort of bigger thing than it used to be just sending out tapes for these really important directors and casting directors. But it’s exciting. As an actor and someone who wants to be a director, the most important thing is to work with the best directors, and I’ve had some interesting opportunities to do that already in my career. And the fact that every job I do leads to more opportunities to do that is so lucky and awesome.
You just said you want to pursue directing, your father [Alessandro Nivola] has been nominated for a Tony and your mom [Emily Mortimer] is also a great screenwriter, do you have any aspirations in either of those directions, or are you set on acting and then directing one day?
I totally do. Since The White Lotus came out, I’ve not been acting a lot. As Jason Isaacs said, I’m no longer an actor, I’m a professional White Lotus promoter. I’ve been flying around the world so much with no Wifi and just my laptop, so [I’ve] been doing lots of writing. I have a production company with my friends called Cold Worm Productions and we have a pretty big slate right now. We just got a rough assembly cut back of a feature that we produced in Wales, like micro-budget indie features, but it’s so fun, and I enjoy it so much. I think it’s really important to do things with your friends and stay creative on a small scale level. Of course, I love acting in these big things, it’s the best opportunity to work with the most talented people. But I also think it’s easy for money to corrupt creativity, obviously, and it’s “Mo Money, Mo Problems” (laughs). So working on tiny budgets, producing these indie features where everyone’s sleeping on the floor of an Airbnb and I’m the producer, but I’m also driving people around and picking up lunch for people, it’s a really fulfilling, creative experience.
Do you have any other projects to tease, or do you have a dream role that you’d like to take on at some point?
I just shot an indie comedy directed by the great legend Bobby Farrelly, so keep an eye out for that. And I did a pilot a while back before The White Lotus came out that I think I’m going to hear in the next little while whether or not that gets picked up, in which case I would go see that soon. A dream role? I don’t know. I think that it would be impossible for me to describe a dream role because the best roles are the ones that are original and haven’t been written yet. At the time, Travis Bickle [in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver] was obviously a very new kind of character, and I’d love to play a new kind of character.
The comedy that you mentioned is Driver’s Ed, and that filmed in North Carolina, correct?
Yep!
Was that your first time visiting the state, and do you think that your White Lotus Ratliff family nailed the North Carolina accent after spending time shooting there?
I kind of think we did! Everyone said that we kids don’t have any accents, but we did work with a dialogue coach and changed very subtle vowels, because apparently, from the people I met when I was there, the younger generation are totally losing their accents because of the globalization of the internet and going to colleges where you travel around, you tend to soften your accent. But it was my first time, and I love North Carolina. It was so relaxing because I was there while the show was coming out, and whenever I would come to New York, like when I came to do the Hollywood Reporter shoot with you guys, I came for a weekend while I was in the middle of the shoot in North Carolina, and it was just mayhem. [I was] getting stopped everywhere I went, and it was impossible to go grab a beer without being swarmed, and in North Carolina, no one gave a shit, which was awesome. It was so funny, because the family is from North Carolina, I was expecting people to really give a shit (Laughs).
Lochlan was choosing between Duke or Chapel Hill. Obviously, there’s this looming financial stress on the Ratliffs, but if he ends up going to college, where do you think he ended up choosing to go?
I think, if anything, he probably doesn’t go to college. But I don’t know, the theme with the family is very much, at least with Piper, trying to be something you’re not, trying to break free from the mold of the family and being unsuccessful and unable to do so. So if that’s the mold, then I think I probably go to Duke and fall after my father in a very sort of patriarchal sense. But I like to think that what he actually needs is to either not go to college or take a gap year and go traveling by himself, without his family, importantly (Laughs), and go sort of find himself.
Both of your parents [Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola] are actors, so what is the greatest thing that you’ve learned from them, and is there anything that they taught you or advised you not to do in your career as an actor?
Advice is a complicated thing as an actor because everyone has their own method and it’s very specific. Whenever everyone is playing different characters from different time periods, it’s very hard to give generalized advice about what it is to be an actor that is so situational and specific to exactly the character that you’re playing. We don’t talk, my parents and I, that much about the creative side of it, because I think it’s important to find your own way. But they give me so much advice about the technical side of the business, like how to not get fucked on your contract, what to ask for and how to keep yourself happy and sane when you’re on a big, long press tour that takes you around the world. And how to keep a level head, how to stay happy and feel in your body, and I’ve learned a lot from them — and about producing, because they also produce. You know, just the technicalities of having read a good log line, what to put in a pitch deck, formatting, all that shit has been incredibly helpful.
Patrick also told The Hollywood Reporter that he’s heard rumors of an all-star White Lotus season, and Mike White told us that he would love to do that. Have you heard those rumors, and would you be open to potentially returning for an all-star White Lotus season?
Of course I would. I would jump off the Empire State Building for Mike White (Laughs), I would do just about anything. I would adore to work with him again in whatever capacity. I mean, we would all, including Mike, joke about him doing an all-star season when we were in Thailand, but I could sort of never tell whether he was joking or he was serious, so, who knows? The thing is that the all-star season would have to, I imagine, be the last season. I can’t tell when the last season’s going to be right now, because the show is such a hit and Mike is so happy making it. I don’t know when they would ever decide to stop, but we’ll see, and if that phone rings with his name on it, I’m picking up 10 times out of 10.
Looking back on your entire White Lotus experience, what is the biggest thing you learned from playing Lochlan?
I think the biggest thing that I learned was that you have to soak it in. That’s sort of my only regret from the shoot is that, not just me, but I was talking to Parker and Sarah Catherine, and we were just saying we were all so nervous going into it, and we shouldn’t have been, because Mike is so lovely and puts everyone at ease. But, it’s a big show, it’s a big deal, and for me, it’s a big deal because I’ve never been in anything so big before with so many eyes on it. And even for someone like Parker Posey, who’s a legend in our field, it’s intense and it’s nerve wracking to be a part of something that’s already so beloved, and [to] be a new part of something that people are going to judge and have opinions on.
I think at times, I was too nervous to really sit back and be like, you know what? I’m in fucking Thailand, at a five-star luxury resort with these people that are now my best friends in the world, and we’re all doing this job that I’ve wanted to do since I was little, acting at the highest level with some of the most accomplished creatives in our field. That is something that I wish I had savored more. And I did, but there were a lot of things on our mind on any given day.
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The White Lotus season three is streaming on HBO Max. Head here for all of THR’s season three interviews and coverage, including our uncensored oral history with White and the cast.
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