Jake Lacy Interview The White Lotus

Jake Lacy Interview: The White Lotus

Screen Rant interviews The White Lotus star Jake Lacy in an in-depth post-mortem about the season 1 finale and how Shane could return in season 2.

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Jake Lacy Interview The White Lotus

Warning: SPOILERS for The White Lotus season 1 finale – “Departures”.

The White Lotus concluded season 1 on HBO Max and the relationship issues between Shane Patton (Jake Lacy) and his bride Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), as well as the mystery of who was the body being transported on their airplane, were resolved in stunning fashion. Amazingly, despite his conflict with the White Lotus’ hotel manager, Armond (Murray Bartlett), Shane came out ‘winning’ in The White Lotus’ finale as Rachel came back to him while the rich real estate bro stabbing Armond, who died, was apparently ruled to be in self-defense.

Screen Rant spoke to Jake Lacy in an in-depth interview about The White Lotus finale, shooting the show during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shane’s point of view in his marriage to Rachel, Shane’s wacky rivalry with Armond during his honeymoon, and the actor’s ideas about how Shane could return in The White Lotus season 2.

Screen Rant: Congratulations on The White Lotus. It was the perfect summer show and it was a great escape even if it wasn’t anyone’s idea of an ideal vacation. Can you talk about what it was like to shoot the show in Hawaii during the pandemic?

Jake Lacy: It was wild. I hadn’t worked during the whole pandemic so I had no idea what the experience would be like boots on the ground with the Covid protocols and creating a bubble. I keep describing it as two trains running on parallel tracks. You’re in the most beautiful place on Earth, staying in a hotel, being tested so you know if someone has Covid or doesn’t, and there’s a safety in that knowledge. And then the other track is that you’re smack-dab in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and away from your family. It’s all bizarre.

For a while, I was trying to figure out, do they cancel each other out? Does one make the other less valid? And really, they’re both just existing at the same time. Ultimately, I got accustomed pretty quickly to the rigorous protocols of masks and testing, and once you come to terms with that, the work experience is actually the most normal thing. Because that’s what you’re used to: hanging around on set, screwing around with people and working, and doing it again the next day.

Before we get into the finale, I wanted to ask you about the scene on the boat where Shane and Rachel were trapped while Jennifer Coolidge is trying to spread her mom’s ashes. That was insane. What was that like to shoot?

Jake Lacy: Yeah, that was wild. We ended up shooting that in two parts because there was a false positive on the second to last day of filming. So we all flew back for the last couple of days to finish that boat scene. We held that until the end. We’d gotten a day and a half in and then we had concerns about a potential positive test, which turned out to be a false positive. So we all left for the holidays and came back, I think, in February.

Shooting the scene itself was incredible. Like, I sound disingenuous when I go, “It was amazing! Everything was great! Everything was perfect!” But to shoot on an antique boat a mile offshore in Hawaii with some of the funniest people I’ve worked with is just a dream. Mike [White] had written this wonderful, essentially a eulogy, for her mother as a farewell, and they’d known each other for a long time so he was like, “I would love you to hit most of these notes and separately, do your thing. Do what you do.” And there were some gems.

The one that I remember that made it into the cut was when she said, “My mother could be very cruel. Very, very cruel. She once told me I couldn’t be a ballerina – and this is when I was skinny!” That was like pure [Jennifer] Coolidge. That one just sliced me up. I think the world of her and she’s just such an incredible performer. It’s something I’ll hold dear for a long time.

Jake Lacy Interview The White Lotus

The show ends with a couple of shockers where we find out it’s Armond’s body being loaded into the plane and Rachel comes back to Shane and promises she’ll be happy. Let’s talk about Rachel first. There’s a line in The Simpsons where Homer goes, “Is this a happy ending or a sad ending?” Which do you think it is?

Jake Lacy: I think it’s a happy ending that does not sustain. At least for Shane, I think ultimately what Shane wants is to be recognized as a victim. He wants the room [he paid for] but he really wants someone to rub his back and say, “We f*cked up. You’re totally right. You were totally done wrong and you deserve better.” So for him, it’s this huge win when Rachel comes back because it feels so validating that someone is saying, “You’re right. You’re totally justified in how you behave, and I’m happy and it’s gonna be okay.”

There’s no ownership or culpability on his end in regards to his behavior or priorities or attitude. But clearly, that’s also there. So I feel like it’s a happy ending for a week or maybe a month and then it slowly crumbles into a sad ending.

I have to say, my female friends who watch the show are really pro-Rachel, but to play devil’s advocate, Shane wasn’t abusive to Rachel in their marriage. He got mad at dinner and banged on the table but he wasn’t violent towards her. They were just wrong for each other. What’s your take on Shane and Rachel?

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Jake Lacy: My feeling is that his outlook and attitude and dismissal of others is not something I strive for. And this doesn’t excuse his behavior or obsession with getting what he wants, but he has been done wrong. They did give him the wrong room and he is paying an exorbitant amount of money for a service and they are not providing that service.

To me, that’s what’s so wonderful about Mike’s writing. It’s grounded in a thing that’s totally real and relatable and frustrating, but the choices that Shane makes coming out of that are, at times, grotesque. But the same can be said for Armond – I’m standing up for Shane (laughs) – but the same can be said for Armond because like, you messed up and then lied about it. And then doubled down and tripled down and then started antagonizing a guest. I mean, sure, I guess you’re ‘the good guy’ because you’re on the service end of this but it’s pretty unprofessional.

And the thing with regards to Shane with Rachel, I feel like he just does not have the emotional depths to offer her. I think she wants more and has every right to want more. I don’t think he’s a manipulator or an aggressor. I think he’s maybe shallow and selfish, but he’s also pretty honest. You know, when they get in that fight and she’s saying, “I don’t want to be a trophy”, [Shane says] “Then don’t be.” She’s like, “Well, that’s how it is with you,” [and Shane replies] “So you’re pretty and that’s part of it for me and you’re offended by that? What is the problem?” Because for him he’s like, “I’m telling you you’re hot, it’s easy to get along with you, we like to have sex together… why is any of that bad? What is the problem?” And she’s like, “That is the problem, the fact that that’s all this is is the problem.” But he’s not like an assailant, you know?

And again, I feel like it’s all credit to Mike to create these nuanced people just missing each other, who are just the wrong fit, as opposed to like, she’s a free spirit and she’s brilliant and he’s holding her down, you know?

Yeah, she’s not a manic pixie dream girl.

Jake Lacy: No, and that would make it a melodrama where you’re rooting for this oppressed individual in one relationship, and the oppressor is just an evildoer because he’s evil. That’s not really what life is. Life is much more [about] people having varying experiences and possibly terrible behavior. That’s the messiness of this story, at least.

Jake Lacy Interview The White Lotus

Let’s talk about Armond. Murray Bartlett is incredible. The scene where he was high on coke and he’s doing his final seating. It’s beautifully done and the performance was great, and only Shane who was like, “There’s something off about this guy.”

Jake Lacy: It’s also such a wonderful cut where they go from the slo-mo classical music to go to just him standing at the stand and just humming to himself and rocking back and forth. And he goes back and goes, “I f*cking nailed that seating!” and [his employees] are like, “Yeah!” (laughs) Just the experience of being all messed up and thinking, “I am crushing it right now!” and from the outside, [Shane is thinking] “You’re barely keeping your head up.”

Yeah, it is fun that Shane is so lasered in on Armond that he is the only one to pick up on there being something amiss. I think Natasha [Rothwell, who plays Belinda] said in the EPK that in the service industry, some element of that relationship [with guests] is about ‘disappear into the background, don’t be anything other than a conduit for the thing the guests or clients want.’ In this weird way, Shane is really seeing Armond, but not as a person and not out of empathy, but as a target and as an opponent.

I’m glad you said Shane sees Armond as an opponent. My read on Shane and Armond is that Shane is a guy who’s just used to getting what he wants like it’s automatic. The fact that Armond was obstructing him and he knew it, I think he kind of enjoyed the idea that Armond became his arch-enemy. He was someone to outwit.

Jake Lacy: Oh yeah. When we found that in filming it… Shane’s joy in his own outrage at being treated this way… [It] was kind of sickly fulfilling for him to be like, “I am being so screwed over!” He’s looking for a fight, you know? The clearest to me is when Armond has just walked by the Mossbachers and the girls with the backpack, and he walks past Shane trying to get his attention, and he just keeps going. Mike’s direction was, “It’s almost funny how outrageous it is that this guy looked at you and just walked away.” And that is, to me, the most Shane moment, like, “Are you seeing this?!” Because he’s so justified in being like, “I’m being done wrong! You must have seen that!”

There is a fulfillment in getting to be the underdog [for Shane] because, ultimately, he knows he’ll win. Like, he then gets this struggle to absolutely overcome and feel like a champion of some kind, even though it’s just access and privilege that’s giving him the ‘win.’

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And in a weird way, Shane’s problems with Armond became the most interesting part of his honeymoon for him.

Jake Lacy: 100%!

Otherwise, he’s just lying around, having sex with his wife, and pretending to read his book.

Jake Lacy: Yes, I think for him, there’s nothing he would rather do than have sex with Rachel and then dive right into dealing with the Armond situation. There’s no, “We should go hike the volcano” or “We should take a helicopter ride.” He makes no attempt to explore the island. At least the Mossbachers are attempting scuba diving and attempting to get off the resort. But I think Shane would be happy to hit the buffet, have sex with his wife, and then just nail this hotel manager to the wall.

Let me ask you about shooting the big scene in the finale with Armond. First of all, one of the most graphic things I’ve ever seen on HBO was Armond leaving ‘the present’ for Shane. [Armond defecates in Shane’s suitcase.] Then you’re right into Chekhov’s knife, where you introduce the knife in act one and it’s gotta be used in act three.

Jake Lacy: (laughs) Yes!

What was it like shooting that cat and mouse game in the scene where Shane stabs Armond?

Jake Lacy: It was fun to do because all the pieces in these six episodes [are] leading to this moment. All these weaving, meandering, crisscrossing paths, were part of Shane’s drive to get this knife rather than saying, “I’m out of here. I’ll go down to the front desk and find out if there’s someone in the room and deal with it in some kind of responsible, rational manner.” His marriage that’s eight days old is falling apart and he’s being called out by the woman he loves, and he feels like he’s getting screwed on the room. And now someone has taken a sh** on his sweater, and he feels like enough is enough.

And then Armond relapsing and the burn it down attitude that he expresses… they’re both at their wit’s end. So to have it escalate for Shane in this crazy way and then the realization that there’s another person [in his room], having it drop all the way from the ridiculousness of “there’s a turd in my luggage” all the way to Shane pulling a knife on someone was a lot of fun. Separate from the story and acting element, the fact that they were able to get the both us in multiple shots, where Armond is leaning in and me leaning out, as we both look for who the other person is.

To be able to hold both of us in that frame and set up that shot was so nice, rather than tight on me, tight on Armond. That’s one way to build tension, I suppose, but to have us in the same frame multiple times, really right up until steel meets flesh was just a wonderful way to shoot it, I thought. All those scenes where we’re in the suites and they could shoot through the bathroom into the bedroom and vice versa, and people moving between doors [were great]. The same with Shane and Rachel getting in an argument or having sex and then me going into the bathroom and her still on the bed… being able to shoot all of that stuff in a theatrical way, because we had a deep stage to work in, it all just looks so nice and I could not have ever imagined that in doing it. But the DP, the editor, Mike, they’re just wonderful, what they got from all of that.

The White Lotus got renewed for season 2. Mike White said he wants a different cast and location but he’s open to some season 1 cast reprising their roles. Do you think Shane would want to stay at a White Lotus resort again?

Jake Lacy: (laughs) I do. Because I think it’s the most power move to be like, “I didn’t do something wrong. You did something wrong. I only stay at White Lotus resorts now. I don’t need to hide my face in shame. I have every right to be here. I didn’t take a sh** in anyone’s luggage.” I think he feels like he has a right to be anywhere at any time and to speak to anybody in any way. Yes. The answer is yes. I think he feels like, almost in defense of himself, he should stay at White Lotus resorts because not staying would be admitting fault. Staying only at the Four Seasons or the Grand Wailea would be like admitting there was a reason he should be there as opposed to, “I can go anywhere I want.”

I heard they were doing season 2 and I was like, “Ooh! I really hope Shane pops up.” Even just passing by and Shane is at the airport having an issue with somebody. Just enough to be like, this guy’s still out there doing his thing. Rachel’s not there, there’s a different woman, Rachel has left me. Any number of those [scenarios]. Yeah, I would love to be a part of [The White Lotus season 2] but if not, I would be so thrilled to see what they do and where they go. I just love what Mike does. Whether I’m in it or not, I’ll be watching it.

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