Wilting “White Lotus.”
Spoilers ahead for the fifth episode of “The White Lotus” Season 3.
Patrick Schwarzenegger’s “White Lotus” incest kissing scene almost brought up more than just anxiety, according to his costars.
In episode 5 of “The White Lotus’” Season 3, the incestuous relationship between brothers Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), hinted at in episode 1, becomes very real. Lochlan kisses his older brother during a drug-fueled party with two girls whom the boys are trying to impress (and bed): Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon).
Chloe, the girlfriend of Greg Hunt, aka Tanya McQuoid’s (Jennifer Coolidge) widower, Gary (Jon Gries), has borrowed her boyfriend’s yacht to host the bacchanal.
on “The White Lotus” Season 3. Fabio Lovino/HBO
The model instigates the kiss after she and Chelsea share a smooch, first egging the brothers on before demanding a more passionate embrace when Lochlan (aka Lochy) first gives Saxon just a peck. After Lochy plants a more fiery kiss, a stunned Saxon shakes his head, seemingly unable to process the moment.
Le Bon, 38, spoke about filming the scene in a new interview with Vulture.
“Well obviously they’re not brothers by blood, so that made it easier,” she said. “I think for Patrick it was really difficult. For Sam, he was kind of like, ‘It’s whatever, let’s just do it well one time and it will be over.’ You know? Because if you don’t do it well the first time, then you have to do it over and over again.”
“But Patrick’s reaction in the episode is his genuine reaction,” she revealed.
Le Bon continued, “We all thought he was going to throw up. And Sam was like, ‘It’s fine, it’s just a kiss, calm down!’”
Of her character, the Canadian actress and director said, “I think Chloe is deeply, deeply bored. There’s a void inside of her. She fills that void with partying, sex and chaos. This kiss between the two brothers for her is just pure entertainment, which is obviously really evil when you think about it.”
“She’s not attached to life — I don’t know how to say it. She’s just there. She’s just incarnated in this body to live the experience of life and she doesn’t really care about the rest,” Le Bon went on, adding that the scene was scripted as having two kisses.
Schwarzenegger, 31, spoke to Today about creator Mike White’s intent in writing the incest kissing scene.
“He wants to leave that up to the interpretation of the audience of what is happening,” the Hollywood scion said. “Was a power shift happening? Is there a different power dynamic between him and Lochy? Is Lochy coming on to him? Is it the drugs? Is it the girls pressuring him? What is it? So, I think he leaves that open-ended for the audience to try to decipher.
“One of the themes really is you enter the White Lotus as one person and you leave as another,” he explained. “Who are you when everything that you thought you were is taken away?
“And I think that’s something that’s really relevant and prevalent for Saxon. Him walking into the White Lotus as the most confident and sure person of who he is, and everything gets completely questioned in his experience there.”
Schwarzenegger also took to social media to weigh in on fans’ reactions to the show. On Monday, he reposted a photo shared on X of his and Nivola’s characters captioned “Call Me By Our Same Last Name,” an allusion to the book and movie “Call Me By Your Name.” In his repost, the star wrote three “Rolling On The Floor Laughing” emojis.
For his part, Nivola, 21, has said that he believes Lochlan’s “an incredibly insecure guy” and “a real people pleaser who needs something from the people.”
“He’s not very self-sufficient, he needs love and support from the people around him in his life, and I think he’s willing to go to all the lengths to find the people he loves,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
“There’s a push and pull between sex, and then Piper trying to control his future. But for me? I don’t think Lochlan really gives a s–t which path he goes down. I think it’s more that he’s going to choose whichever path feels like it’s with the person who loves him the most.”
The actor also revealed to GQ that the scene was shot “a few different ways,” adding “we talked about it a lot.”
“I think at the end of the day, it was supposed to just be like they’re all really f—ed up, and, of course, kissing your brother is incredibly wrong and weird and gross.”
“The White Lotus” executive producer David Bernad spoke to The Post about whether there was any behind-the-scenes discussion about whether an incest plot was going too far.
“No, in terms of that — that’s all [creator Mike White]. Mike is brilliant, and I think those big story turns are not just for shock,” he exclusively told The Post.
Bernad added, “There’s a specific reason in terms of the narrative storytelling, and the larger thematic idea Mike is trying to get across.”
He explained, “as the season wraps up, you’ll see the purpose of that story turn. The show goes there for a larger thematic idea. I love that family storyline, especially the brother story — and, it culminates in a very satisfying way.”
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
