Jason Isaacs unpacks that full-frontal moment on The White Lotus: ‘Go big or go home’
“It is now in my contract for every show I do,” Isaacs tells EW.
HBO
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The White Lotus season 3, episode 4, “Hide or Seek.”
Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) has a lot to hide from his family right now on The White Lotus, which makes it incredibly ironic that he exposed himself to all of them during this week’s episode. Yes, season 3 of Mike White’s HBO vacation satire has added another male full-frontal moment to its ever-growing collection. Isaacs now joins the club alongside his onscreen son Patrick Schwarzenegger, season 2’s Theo James, and season 1’s Steve Zahn.
As soon as he arrived in Thailand, Timothy learned that his perfect life is about to come crashing down, because the FBI is investigating him for money laundering and bribery. The clock has been ticking for Tim ever since, as he’s kept his family — wife Victoria (Parker Posey), sons Saxon (Schwarzenegger) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), and daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) — in the dark and blissfully unaware of the impending doom. And in Sunday’s episode, “Hide or Seek,” Timothy proceeded to get high on the Lorazepam he stole from his wife, and without realizing that his robe popped open, he leaned back, exposing himself in front of them all.
HBO
“Yeah, it is now in my contract for every show I do, so we’ll see,” Isaacs tells Entertainment Weekly with a laugh about his full-frontal moment. “It’ll get easier, hopefully.”
“You should be asking what it was like for us to watch it,” Schwarzenegger tells EW, making Isaacs let out another big laugh.
While Timothy’s family didn’t think twice about his odd behavior — Victoria laughed and rolled her eyes, Saxon laughed, Lochlan cringed, and Piper hid her face in embarrassment — Isaacs spent a long time thinking about what has led his character to this rock bottom moment.
“He’s drugging himself into a stupor to try not to think about the fact that his entire life is blowing up and trying to work out what to do about it,” Isaacs says. “It was actually quite challenging — I remember reading the scripts thinking, ‘Wow, I’ve got to keep my powder dry for five or six episodes, and then this s— really kicks off.’ You haven’t seen other things that are coming, but I just remember thinking, ‘I better dig deep and produce something here,’ because there’s a lot of parts you can go through and tell a very dramatic story without your character going through anything extreme. But there’s some big, old acting coming up.”
FABIO LOVINO/HBO
The actor describes the rest of his season 3 arc as “Shakespearean tragedy stuff” as Timothy continues to unravel. “He’s been bottling it up for a very long time,” he says. “There is a point coming when they leave — if they make it and they’re alive, because who knows — but it’s going to be unavoidable, the big secret he has been harboring.”
Isaacs poured himself into the character during filming to bring that to life, but he isn’t sure what audiences will think once they see the rest of the season. “I don’t know how I pulled it off,” he says. “The audience will see whether I did or not. It’ll be up to them to judge, but I just remember thinking, ‘I’ve got to go big — go big or go home.’ And then when things happen that I can’t talk about particularly, something else had to kick in, and there’s a mania and a terror that you have to access. You’ve got to get there. I mean, you’ve got to be as real as you can. And yeah, there was some inner gear changes required.”
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Knowing that most of Timothy’s struggle is internal was a big challenge for Isaacs. “It didn’t feel easy because first of all, I like words. I like talking,” he says. “And not that characters should talk all the time, but I knew that I was unable to share with anybody else, apart from the audience, what was going on for me. And that was done mostly wordlessly in a drugged stupor, so that was always going to be a challenge, not to just be the boring guy falling asleep.”
At least in this case, “boring guy falling asleep” delivered another instance of full-frontal male nudity, which is now officially a trend on this show.
The White Lotus season 3 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.
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Another full frontal White Lotus scene leaves viewers gobsmacked as dysfunctional dad Jason Isaacs goes naked
By BRIAN GALLAGHER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 02:41 GMT, 10 March 2025 | UPDATED: 04:59 GMT, 10 March 2025
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HBO’s The White Lotus delivered yet another male full-frontal nude scene on Sunday’s brand new episode.
The show’s third season – set at a fictional resort in Thailand – has not been shy with nudity, of both the male and female variety.
The Season 3 premiere featured a full-frontal nude scene with Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon that also hinted at a bizarre incest story line.
The second episode featured the bare breasts of Aimee Lou Wood’s character Chelsea as well.
Sunday night’s fourth episode – entitled Hide or Seek – featured Jason Isaacs’ Timothy Ratliff in a brief full frontal nude shot.
Fans were stunned that the show would display yet another nude shot, and they were quick to react on social media.
HBO ‘s The White Lotus delivered yet another shock male full-frontal nude scene on Sunday’s brand new episode
Sunday night’s fourth episode – entitled Hide or Seek – featured Jason Isaacs’ Timothy Ratliff in a brief full frontal nude shot
Jason plays the patriarch of the dysfunctional Ratliff family
The scene in question happened in the Ratliff family villa at The White Lotus, as they were discussing an upcoming boat trip.
Ratliff matriarch Victoria (Parker Posey) entered the room and mentioned that some of her Lorazepam pills are missing, unaware that her husband Timothy took some.
While Timothy isn’t exactly a regular Lorazepam user, he’s been quite stressed out after learning that he may be going to jail for a very long time due to his shady business dealings.
The Ratliff daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) asked her mom why she needs those pills, and she said she gets nervous in social situations.
Piper mentioned the private club they go to, as Timothy seemed to realize that all of his friends at the club would soon find out about his shady dealings.
Timothy – sitting on a chair clad only in a robe – then decided to stretch out, the robe lifting up and exposing his genitals to his children, who cover their eyes in shock.
He quickly adjusted his robe and went about his day, as Victoria had a little chuckle about it as well.
Fans were quick to flock to social media to react to the nude scene, many stunned to see it and many seemingly quite happy.
While Timothy isn’t exactly a regular Lorazepam user, he’s been quite stressed out after learning that he may be going to jail for a very long time due to his shady business dealings
Piper mentioned the private club they go to, as Timothy seemed to realize that all of his friends at the club would soon find out about his shady dealings
Timothy – sitting on a chair clad only in a robe – then decided to stretch out, the robe lifting up and exposing his genitals to his children, who cover their eyes in shock.
Fans were quick to flock to social media to react to the nude scene, many stunned to see it and many seemingly quite happy.
X user @bingowinnerr said, ‘Another full frontal scene on The White Lotus and this time it’s the dad,’ wit a GIF of Oprah Winfrey celebrating.
Jacob (@d1g1talw1tness) said in all caps, ‘WE GOT FULL FRONTAL #TheWhiteLotus’ when the scene aired.
Omari Daniels (@TheOtherBigO) added, ‘Again, I never want to hear anyone say that there’s not enough full-frontal male nudity on TV. HBO alone has the quota covered. ‘
Kay (@KayCharisse) said, ‘Me: *Is he completely naked under that robe?* ….yes, yes he was, I did NOT have Jason Isaacs full-frontal on my White Lotus S3 bingo card lmaooo.’
X user Anna (@cherrylplushies) said in all caps ‘I DID NOT JUST GOT FLASH???’ with a crying emoji.
Briana (@briasoboojie) said, ‘Did their dad just flash his balls?!!?!’ on Twitter.
Another X user @othyxcx said, ‘This man did not just flash his own kids’ along with #TheWhiteLotus hashtag.
Yana (@echosdune) added, ‘NOT A D**K FLASH. I forgot there’s at least 1 per season.’
X user @bingowinnerr said, ‘Another full frontal scene on The White Lotus and this time it’s the dad,’ wit a GIF of Oprah Winfrey celebrating
Jacob (@d1g1talw1tness) said in all caps, ‘WE GOT FULL FRONTAL #TheWhiteLotus’ when the scene aired.
Kay (@KayCharisse) said, ‘Me: *Is he completely naked under that robe?* ….yes, yes he was, I did NOT have Jason Isaacs full-frontal on my White Lotus S3 bingo card lmaooo’
X user Anna (@cherrylplushies) said in all caps ‘I DID NOT JUST GOT FLASH???’ with a crying emoji
Briana (@briasoboojie) said, ‘Did their dad just flash his balls?!!?!’ on Twitter.
Another X user @othyxcx said, ‘This man did not just flash his own kids’ along with #TheWhiteLotus hashtag
Yana (@echosdune) added, ‘NOT A D**K FLASH. I forgot there’s at least 1 per season.’
Patrick Schwarzenegger – the on-screen son of Jason Isaacs – goes full-frontal in The White Lotus Season 3 premiere
Episode two of The White Lotus season three featured even more nudity in episode with Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea stripping off with Walton Goggins’ Rick
Isaacs is just the latest actor to go full-frontal for The White Lotus, with at least one male nude scene in each of the show’s three seasons.
Steve Zahn’s Mark Mossbacher was seen nude in the first season, while Theo James’ Cameron Babcock went full frontal in Season 2, and Patrick Schwarzenegger this season.
Isaacs even joked about the scene in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, claiming that full-frontal will be in all of his contracts moving forward.
‘Yeah, it is now in my contract for every show I do, so we’ll see. It’ll get easier, hopefully,’ Isaacs joked.
When asked about Timothy stealing his wife’s drugs, Isaacs said, ‘He’s drugging himself into a stupor to try not to think about the fact that his entire life is blowing up and trying to work out what to do about it.’
Then actor added, ‘It was actually quite challenging — I remember reading the scripts thinking, “Wow, I’ve got to keep my powder dry for five or six episodes, and then this s— really kicks off.”‘
‘You haven’t seen other things that are coming, but I just remember thinking, “I better dig deep and produce something here,” because there’s a lot of parts you can go through and tell a very dramatic story without your character going through anything extreme. But there’s some big, old acting coming up,’ he teased.
Timothy learned after taking a call in Sunday’s episode that the feds are closing in on him, and he may very well lose everything he’s worked so hard for all his life.
When asked about Timothy stealing his wife’s drugs, Isaacs said, ‘He’s drugging himself into a stupor to try not to think about the fact that his entire life is blowing up and trying to work out what to do about it.’
It’s worth noting also that after that dreaded phone call, Timothy appears to have stolen the gun that security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) had left on a desk, and not in the locked drawer where it was earlier
He also described his character’s arc as, ‘Shakespearean tragedy stuff,’ while hinting that Timothy has, ‘a big secret he’s been harboring.’
It’s worth noting also that after that dreaded phone call, Timothy appears to have stolen the gun that security guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) had left on a desk, and not in the locked drawer where it was earlier.
What he plans on doing with that gun remains to be seen, though Isaacs teased his thought process for the back half of the season.
‘The audience will see whether I did or not. It’ll be up to them to judge, but I just remember thinking, ‘I’ve got to go big — go big or go home,’ he said.
‘And then when things happen that I can’t talk about particularly, something else had to kick in, and there’s a mania and a terror that you have to access,’ he continued.
‘The audience will see whether I did or not. It’ll be up to them to judge, but I just remember thinking, ‘I’ve got to go big — go big or go home,’ he said.
‘You’ve got to get there. I mean, you’ve got to be as real as you can. And yeah, there was some inner gear changes required,’ Isaacs teased.
It remains to be seen if Timothy had anything to do with the dead body shown floating in the water during the Season 3 premiere flash-forward that is now standard for each season of The White Lotus, setting the scene to let fans try and figure out who didn’t make it out of The White Lotus alive.
The White Lotus returns with the fifth episode of the show’s eight-episode season on Sunday, March 16 at 9 PM ET only on HBO.
Comments are subject to our House rules and Terms
Maybe the writer likes to see what they all have!
Not that bothered by nudity. What I don’t like is the gratuitous sex scenes. If it doesn’t add anything to the story I don’t need to see it. I’m not even offended by it, it’s just boring. Watching people pretend to have sex is pointless. That’s what …. See more
Nobody wants to see those old, withered ornaments
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Jason Isaacs Wants You to Know This Before ‘The White Lotus’ Finale
Jason Isaacs does not want to talk about The White Lotus. This is not because he does not revere The White Lotus, or its creator, Mike White—he is a staunch partisan of both. It is because, at present, he has briefly adjourned from acting to become a full-time traveling spokesman for The White Lotus. And upon hearing that yours truly writes frequently about tennis, his fanaticism for the sport alights so acutely that we spend nearly 40 minutes dissecting Patrick Mouratoglou’s UTS League, the preternatural joy of Carlos Alcaraz’s game, and the only career ambition that Isaacs has left to contend with: tennis commentator.
However, as we are in fact convened in the Luxury Collection Hotel in midtown Manhattan to talk about season 3 of The White Lotus—which Isaacs also loves and is currently starring in—we must get down to business. Isaacs joins the Lotusphere as Tim Ratliff, a southern financier and family man on vacation at the series’ namesake resort in Thailand. Eastern-infused tradition abounds, and rich guests are encouraged to set aside both their existential dread and electronic devices during the course of their stay. Instead, Tim spends most of the season’s early episodes skulking around the hotel grounds in dad-on-vacation shorts, holding furtive conversations on the cell phone he’s not supposed to have. Trouble is afoot, and the percussion of anxiety resonating in Tim’s psyche is forming an avalanche.
The 61-year-old Isaacs’s body of work spans decades, including notable turns in The Patriot (2000) Peter Pan (2003), and Black Hawk Down (2001). “I’m old. I’ve been in a lot of things,” he tells me. “Some of them are great, some of them are watchable, and many of them are just absolutely unconscionable.” But when he’s in public, he claims to fly mostly under the radar, even in the midst of Lotus mania. “I have an instantly forgettable face,” he adds. “Which is fine by me.”
When Isaacs is recognized in the wild, it’s usually for his time as Lucius Malfoy, the flaxen-haired patriarch from the eight Harry Potter films, the last of which released in 2011. Lucius was, for the less familiar, head of the semi-villainous Malfoy clan and father to Draco, the snide teen with whom Harry Potter frequently rumbled at Hogwarts. Isaacs does not wear a blonde wig as a matter of lifestyle, but millennial parents always know an early-aughts phenomenon when they see one.
“The kids will have no idea why the fuck they’re being dragged up to the cosmetics aisle in Sephora or wherever it is I’m out getting tampons for my daughter,” he says. “They’re just staring as their parents are going, ‘Do you recognize him? He’s a wizard.’ And they’re going, ‘No, I don’t.’ ”
Ahead of episode 3, which is out now and rife with moments to pick apart on Reddit, Isaacs and I sat down to speak about what it feels like when Mike White’s genius ruins your taste, perfecting Ratliff’s southern drawl, and the third-greatest day of his life.
ESQUIRE: How are you feeling about season 3 so far?
JASON ISAACS: They’re all different from each other, but I think it’s certainly the richest, deepest, and most profound season yet. I was amazed watching it—at the things I hadn’t picked up while reading it—there’s not a wasted syllable. Things that seem irrelevant early on all come back. It’s all part of the fabric of the existential themes of the show. Not that Mike ever forgets to shock or amuse, but he’s really dealing with serious questions of identity and self here, particularly through my character and through the prism of rich people who think they can buy themselves spiritual advancement.
You pick Thailand for a reason—not for the palm trees. There’s real monasteries and real meditation. And there’s those who come and bring that Western approach of “Can I find enlightenment in five days? But also, I need a feather pillow.”
Have you ever subjected yourself to a digital detox?
I gave my phone up once. I took my wife and my youngest daughter—our eldest one wouldn’t come—on a white-water rafting trip down the Colorado River. And there were no signals. In fact, there wasn’t even a signal for a satellite phone. For five days, we lived in nature’s rhythms. We slept when the sun went down, we rose when the sun came up, and we washed in the river. It was so beautiful. And I resolved, as all people resolve in that context, to be much more sparing with my phone and switch it off once a day. That lasted about 30 seconds.
Do you meditate?
I don’t meditate. What people get from meditation, I get from two other places in my life—the only two times in my life I’m not thinking a thousand different things. One is when I’m acting, because then I’m in someone else’s moment, and the other is when I’m on the tennis court. All of life is a tennis metaphor, and I have to really work hard to not make everything I say filtered through the prism of what happens on the court. I could make this whole interview about my Thai tennis experience.
Tell me everything.
Playing tennis in Thailand, the conditions were like doing a Tough Mudder course. As soon as you leave your room, all of your clothes are completely soaked. I’d play in the middle of the day and not be able to hold my racquet because of the sweat. Only when I finally started taping all my fingers up in a very elaborate ritual could I hold my racquet. It changed my tennis completely, and now I always want to tape my fingers up. You could cook eggs on those hard courts. I’m not exaggerating for comic effect—the soles of your shoes start to melt out there. But what you have to develop is a style of minimal tennis, one where you think, How quickly can I end the point? A bit like Djokovic when he’s injured or Federer towards the end of his career.
Do you have a two-handed backhand?
No, I’m too old. But now I’m going to show you something. I don’t know what this interview is going to look like—it’s going to be really embarrassing.
It’s going to be great.
I have two children, and there is no question that the greatest days of my life are the days that they were born. However, in very close competition, is this. [Holds up phone.]
Is that Stefanos Tsitsipas?
Yes. That’s me and Stef hitting. He’s been number three in the world.
How did that happen?
There’s a tournament called the Boodles, and the first year I went, I went to this exhibition on the grass courts. I was with Andrew Castle’s daughter, Georgina, who’s an actor and a tennis player, and of course Andrew Castle was a famous British tennis player. I said to the organizers of the tournament, “Any chance we can have a hit after this on the courts there?”
We watched Stefanos play Sascha Zverev, and then a guy came up and said, “I’ve got your racquet and some clothes.” And I went, “Okay, for both of us?” And he said, “Oh, I thought you wanted to play with one of the players. Stefanos is a Harry Potter nut.” My response was, “What?” They hadn’t realized I was just asking if I could hit with Georgina. But I assured them, “Oh no, no, fuck that. I’ll absolutely dump her and I’ll drop her like a dead weight.” And I went down and played with Stef. He’s such a wonderful player.
Before White Lotus, what was your favorite thing you’d worked on?
Mass. It was so emotional and intense and beautiful, and it’s about something I believe in. People completely misunderstood and thought it was a depressing film about a school shooting. It’s not—it’s a very uplifting film about the power of forgiveness and freeing your heart. I like extreme, intense, and emotional experiences. It’s one of the reasons I’m an actor: to be able to walk in other people’s shoes.
When I talk to young actors and they want to talk about their life or career, I’m always saying the same thing: “The journey is everything. Don’t ever do a job because of what you think it’s going to do for you. Don’t ever do anything in life because of what you think is coming down the road.” This third season of White Lotus is about the spiritual obstacle course I engaged with a long time ago. How do I feel grateful every day? How can I be aware of the things I have and try to leave things a bit better than I found them?
Your character, Tim, is from North Carolina. Have you spent time there?
In South Carolina, yes. Just over the border. And I went to North Carolina to eat all the time.
Okay, because the accent that he has—
It’s Durham. It’s not just North Carolina. It’s very specific. The Internet exploded with people going, “This is the worst accent I’ve ever heard in my life.” But then there’s also people from Durham commenting, Spot-on. Or, What are you talking about? He sounds exactly like my dad, or my dentist, or my swim coach, or whomever. So I feel slightly validated, although I can’t pretend that those thousand little barbs don’t hurt. I want to write back to each of them individually, and go, “Listen to this sample, then compare it to my voice.” But it’s not really my job, and I shouldn’t be reading their comments.
What was it like on set?
I became very close to my screen kids, Patrick [Schwarzenegger], Sarah Catherine [Hook], and Sam [Nivola]. I really love those idiots. When we all first arrived, we were at the Four Seasons in Koh Samui, where we shot some of the season. It’s a huge compound, and we took the whole thing over, which meant gigantic luxury villas that came with butlers. The older actors got them. I was given one with Walton [Goggins], but Walton had a side villa of his own that he never left. He sat on his balcony smoking, drinking, and getting into character. He has a very interesting, semi-Method approach to things. His work is brilliant, but he also didn’t really want to come and hang out with me in my giant villa. So the kids would come over almost every day and we would play cards and we would watch movies and we would—
Your fake kids?
My fake kids, yeah. We’d play games, we’d laugh, and we just got to know each other very well. I really came to adore them, and then when my real kids arrived, they wanted to hang out with them because they were young. And suddenly, I realized, Oh, wait, my closest friends on this set are 21 and 28.
What about Mike White?
When people talk about Mike White, they talk about his writing but forget that there’s a billion stages during which telling a story onscreen can go wrong. The music can be wrong, the costumes can go wrong. Anything can knock it out. I had a wig once in a show that looked like a placenta, and even if the rest of the show had been arrived from God, it was still unwatchable because of this wig.
Mike oversees everything. And he directs the actors with such a gentle touch, like a cranial osteopath. You go in for cranial osteopathy and you think, “Wait, we’re paying for this? The guy’s barely touched my head.” But a light touch makes all the difference, all the subtleties of characterization and tone. I think that Mike might really have peaked on episode 8. It doesn’t mean that next season won’t be great too, but I can’t wait to see episode 8.
You haven’t seen the finale?
I’ve seen the same as you: episodes 1 through 6. I haven’t seen the others. I’ve read them. I skim-read them once when I was first offered [the role], and only my own scenes. I didn’t want to know what happened to other people because a) my character didn’t know, but b) I’m a fan of White Lotus and I want to watch it. But after seeing the first batch of episodes, I was absolutely salivating for the others. I was furious they wouldn’t send them to me. I wanted to blackmail them…. Who would you kill?
Maybe Michelle Monaghan’s character, Jaclyn?
I don’t know if you’re saying that as a question, but you’re going to get nothing from me.
Honestly, I have no idea.
It’s not like [White] kills people who deserve it or people who don’t deserve it. There’s no pattern to who he decides dies. Be aware—and this is not telling you anything about what’s coming up—Mike has gotten richer and bolder. I don’t mean richer with money. I mean more textured as a writer, empowered to explore whatever he wants, however he wants. It doesn’t stop him from entertaining. But it does mean that he’s always been too clever to repeat himself.
He’s a good enough writer that there are these micro and macro stories that live side by side. The only thing that I regret about doing this is that it’s totally spoiled me. I’m lucky. I’m an actor who does occasionally get work, and everything that comes in, I read it and go, “Well, that’s not Mike White. That’s not as good as the thing I’ve just finished. So I’ve barely done anything since we wrapped, and the things that are on offer to me right now I’m not inclined to do. I think, Wait a second. Have I literally shifted professions? All I do is now tell people how great Mike White is and give interviews about it. Should I go back to work?
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