‘The White Lotus’ Cast’s Biggest Confessions About the Steamy Scenes

Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO

Every Time ‘The White Lotus’ Cast Discussed the Show’s Steamy Sex Scenes: ‘We Just Played’

Making a press release. The White Lotus drew viewers in with stunning plot twists and a few very NSFW intercourse scenes.

The HBO collection, which debuted in July 2021, focuses on the friends and staff at a fictional resort that undergo private ups and downs whereas on trip. The anthology collection can also be recognized for a mysterious demise — or two — that followers have to attend to see uncovered.

During season 2, viewers had been shocked when Harper (Aubrey Plaza) unintentionally snuck a peek at Cameron (Theo James) whereas he undressed. Although the second wasn’t a intercourse scene, the actor later opened up about bringing the intimate energy play to life.

“The truth of it was you go into these things and you have a conversation with the director and the producers, and they go, ‘OK, for this, we’re going to use a prosthetic, we’re gonna use something,’” James defined throughout a December 2022 look on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about the scene that made headlines. “It’s a pee-pee prosthetic.”

The Divergent star hoped the prosthetic would not be too “distracting” for the viewers. “He must be [a] common Joe as a result of the scene’s not about the pee-pee, it’s about energy play in intercourse [and] whether or not he did it intentionally or whether or not it was an accident,” he stated.

At the time, James joked about the ultimate product, including, “I mean, it’s bigger than that. It’s like she stole it off a donkey in the field. The thing is ginormous.”

Creator Mike White, in the meantime, recalled the trepidation he confronted when it got here to directing intercourse scenes.

“I’m very timid about asking people to undress and get into sexual situations. It’s not my wheelhouse. There were definitely times on this shoot that I was like, what have I got myself into? My threshold for awkwardness is very low,” the author detailed to NPR in November 2022. “The actors are much more confident and uninhibited than I am. That was new terrain for me. It just felt like it was important because it really is baked into the narrative.”

White additionally weighed in on fan reactions to the steamy story strains. “It’s funny, though, how now that the show is airing, how much you realize a graphic sex scene or a sex scene that kind of is titillating for various reasons, does just spike and generate an interest in the populace, for better or worse,” he shared.

Scroll down for the White Lotus forged’s most candid quotes about creating these provocative moments:

Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO

Using Prosthetics

“I just wanted it not to be distracting,” James defined in December 2022. “He needs to be [a] regular Joe because the scene’s not about the pee-pee, it’s about power play in sex [and] whether he did it deliberately or whether it was an accident.”

Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO

Pulling Back the Curtain

Ahead of the season 2 finale, Beatrice Grannò broke down how she filmed the particular second between Mia and Valentina.

“The environment was really safe. Having an intimacy coordinator there was very helpful because it’s a difficult thing to do. We rehearsed it before, and I talked with Sabrina [Impacciatore] and we found a way to do it and feel comfortable,” she informed Variety in December 2022. “If I have to be completely honest, we both felt a bit embarrassed, but that embarrassment helped the energy of the scene. Because I have to be the one in control, it wasn’t easy to play that.”

The actress added: “I kind of went the opposite direction — instead of playing the sexy girl who uses her body to get what she wants, I wanted to go to a much deeper level. … I think Mia likes Valentina a little bit. It’s equal in a way. It was very sweet. Valentina needed to be embraced by somebody. It’s not about having sex, it’s about being embraced for who she is.”

Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO

What Goes on Behind the Scenes

“As a director, I’m very timid about asking people to undress and get into sexual situations. It’s not my wheelhouse,” White admitted to NPR. “There were definitely times on this shoot that I was like, what have I got myself into? My threshold for awkwardness is very low. The actors are much more confident and uninhibited than I am. That was new terrain for me. It just felt like it was important because it really is baked into the narrative.”

Credit: Fabio Lovino/HBO

Shocking the Audience

During season 2, Tanya noticed Jack and Quentin having intercourse after they beforehand claimed to be relations. According to Leo Woodall, the plot twist was meant to reflect a previous intercourse scene.

“I just thought it was kind of shocking but so cool. And so White Lotus,” the Vampire Academy star, who performs Jack, informed Bustle in November 2022 about the season 1 sequence between Armand (Murray Bartlett) and Dillon (Lukas Gage). “I thought it was almost an honor to have our own moment in this season.”

Woodall credited White for giving the actors area to discover the dynamic, including, “He just allowed us to play with his script and make things up if we wanted to. It was up to us to figure it out on our own and allow the audience to kind of figure it out as well.”

Credit: Courtesy of HBO

Getting Candid About the Experience

In a November 2022 interview, Adam DiMarco candidly mentioned his strategy to filming intercourse scenes.

“You just have to disassociate. It would be great if HBO could make a cut of the episodes that were family-friendly for the actors, that didn’t include their sex or nudity scenes. But that doesn’t exist,” he informed Interview Magazine about the public response to the NSFW sequence. “I’ve come to accept that that’s out there and of course, I chose to do all of that. I could’ve said no to any of those scenes.”

According to DiMarco, having an intimacy coordinator helped him really feel “comfortable” filming sure Albie scenes. “I think the scenes turned out great. I watched episode five last night. It was my first time watching an episode with a large group of people. I was with Sabrina and John [Gries], and a lot of mutual friends, and they wanted to watch the episode,” he continued. “Just before they put it on, I had a mini panic attack. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can watch this episode in a room full of people. Especially since it starts with a sex scene. This is going to be a weird experience.'”

The Magicians alum added: “But Sabrina really calmed me down and encouraged me just to try it. I was definitely cringing and hiding behind my hands when that stuff was going on, but it was cool to hear the reactions to the episode as a whole.”

Credit: Mario Perez/HBO

Addressing Their Approach

While season 1 was airing in July 2021, Bartlett opened up about the work that went behind the surprising Armand and Dillion intercourse scene.

“Honestly, we didn’t have a lot of conversations outside of just working on the scenes at the time. I think partly because it was just there; it was just written in the script,” he informed Decider at the time. “This character was totally realized and complex and had all these features that I don’t assume they wanted clarification.”

The Australia native, who performed the White Lotus supervisor, praised White for his assist.

“There wasn’t a lot of talk [about] outside of the moment of what we were playing with. And I love that way of working, that Mike just makes you feel like you can completely play on set,” he stated. “You’re simply exploring, however he provides you this unimaginable library of details about the character in the script. So I didn’t have loads of questions and I really feel like he didn’t actually need to clarify loads of stuff. We simply performed.”