Hank Moody would check in to “The White Lotus.”
David Duchovny, 64, who starred as the hedonistic writer Hank Moody on the Showtime drama “Californication” from 2007 to 2014, told The Post that Season 3 of “The White Lotus” caused him to reflect on that character.
“I called up Tom Kapinos, I did ‘Califonication,’ with him,” he said, referring to the show’s creator.
“And I was like, ‘It feels like Hank Moody would have done that Sam Rockwell monologue. It feels like something he would have done, completely.’ He was like, ‘Oh yeah, seems like people are talking like that again.’”
According to Duchovny, that type of bawdy TV monologue seemed to go out of style for a few years. “You never know, right? It’s cultural norms and sensitivities change,” Duchovny said while promoting his new History Channel show, “Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny.”
“I love [‘Californication’]. I feel like in many ways, it was a much more sentimental show than people gave it credit for. It was really like a family drama at the heart of it,” he continued. “There were these other things that kind of distracted people from the fact that it was that. Certainly, people are more sensitive to these issues. To me, it was always comedy.”
“The White Lotus” (airing its season finale this Sunday on HBO at 9 p.m.) follows a different cast of unhappy rich characters on vacation. The Season 3 locale is Thailand, and Rockwell joined the show as a surprise guest late in the season. He plays Frank, who is friends with Rick (Walton Goggins). Rockwell was on location at the time as he’s been with partner Leslie Bibb, who plays Kate, since 2007.
During Rockwell’s “The White Lotus” debut, Frank gave a now-infamous wild monologue about his sex life.
He describes how he moved to Thailand and used to spend a “thousand” nights having sex with random women, before he decided, “Maybe what I really want is to be one of these Asian girls.”
“So I put out an ad… found a guy who looked a lot like me,” Rockwell’s character says. “I put on some lingerie and perfume, I made myself look like one of those girls. I thought I looked pretty hot.”
Rockwell’s character describes how some nights, three to four men would come “rail the sh-t” out of him, and, “at the same time, I’d hire an Asian girl to just sit there and watch the whole thing….I’d look into her eyes while some guy was f–-king me and I’d think, I am her, and I’m f–-king me.”
As Rick looks bewildered and unsure how to respond except to say, “uh-huh…right…” Rockwell’s character talks about how this experience pushed him into finding Buddhism. Additionally, it made him want to get off “the never-ending carousel of lust and suffering.”
For Duchovny, joining the eccentric “White Lotus” would be an easy yes.
“It’s a fun show, for sure,” he told the Post. “I love Lauren Sarner Mike White. I would love to do that.”
“Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny” premieres Friday, April 4 at 10 p.m. ET.
