His vacation took a turn.
On Sunday’s episode of “The White Lotus,” Oscar-winning actor Sam Rockwell joined the show as a surprise cast member. His character, Frank, met Rick (Walton Goggins) in Bangkok, Thailand. As the two men caught up, Frank delivered a bizarre monologue about his sex life.
“Sam is one of my best friends, and he’s also one of my heroes,” Goggins, 53, told USA Today in an interview published Monday.
The “Fallout” star noted that doing a scene with Rockwell “was riddled with anxiety because we know each other so well, and I certainly didn’t want to let him down.”
In Season 3, Rick has traveled to titular fictional resort in Thailand with his much younger girlfriend, Chelsea (Aime Lou Wood). But in episode five, he takes a solo trip to Bangkok and meets Frank while Chelsea is off partying and getting weird and incestuous with brothers Lochnan (Sam Nivola) and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger).
Frank eventually gives him a gun, as part of the mysterious score that Rick has to settle with the owner of the resort.
Rockwell, 56, was likely already in Thailand visiting the set, as his partner, Leslie Bibb, 50, plays Kate Bohr in the Mike White-created dark comedy.
Kate is on a girls’ trip with her two friends, played by Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan.
In 2018, Rockwell told Us Weekly that he and Bibb have a “two to three-week rule and then we see each other.” The couple have been together since 2007.
“Leslie and I are very happy, we have a good life,” Rockwell told the London Standard in 2022. “We just like it the way it is. We don’t want kids. It’s interesting when you tell people this. They get very upset with you. I know more and more couples who don’t have kids.”
They never officially married, but Rockwell does have her in his will.
“I feel like we are married. We live like a married couple,” he continued. “I’m really proud of her… we are both actors, so understand our lifestyle. We can help each other with scenes. She’s awesome. She’s very kind to me and takes care of me.”
Goggins and Rockwell, meanwhile, have been friends for years.
Regarding the scene with Frank and Rick, Goggins told USA Today, “The first words that came out of our mouths, it was as if we were these people our whole lives.”
“And it was like we truly had met up after leading this kind of criminal expat life forever. It was everything that I had hoped it would be. [Viewers] don’t know the story between Rick and Frank, [but] it says a lot about excess and how one lives one’s life.”
“There’s not a better person I could have gone through it with than Sam,” Goggins concluded. “I’m just so grateful for that time together with my buddy.”
“The White Lotus” Season 3 currently airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max.
