Sam Nivola on That “F–king Insane” Lochlan-Saxon ‘White Lotus’ Scene

Warning: Spoilers ahead for season three, episode six of The White Lotus

“I have a lot of creepy old men DM’ing me,” Sam Nivola tells me over the phone from his East Village apartment. The third season of The White Lotus is to blame for that. The 21-year-old Nivola plays Lochlan Ratliff, a sheepish high school senior on vacation in Thailand with his aged money North Carolina family.

The most recent installment of the series will probably not assist Nivola’s creepy-old-men problem. Episode six reveals that Lachlan’s wild night out with older brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and hotel guests Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) turned into a full-blown yacht party that puts a up-to-date spin on the phrase “brotherly love.” (Sorry.) In compact: Flashbacks show us that Lachlan and Saxon didn’t only kiss at the party. While having sex with Chloe, Lachlan also got to third base with his own older sibling.

“It was fucking insane,” says Nivola of the scene. “I had never even kissed anyone on camera, let alone done a sex scene. So that whole thing was really scary.” Fortunately, Nivola had ample time to prepare for the moment. “I was on the phone with Patrick when we both knew we got the roles, and we were talking to each other about how we were going to play it,” he recalls. “He said the scene where Chloe says to Saxon, ‘Your brother jerked you off last night’ was in one of his audition sides. And I was like, ‘What the fuck? What?’”

Despite the risqué subject matter, Nivola didn’t have any second thoughts even after he had a chance to read the scene himself. “I never for a second doubted the importance of that scene to the story,” he says. “I was like, ‘Mike [White], I trust you to, of course, make me feel comfortable on set, but I also trust that this is a really important part of the story. You wouldn’t be telling us to shoot it otherwise.’”

It helped that he could also deeply relate to Lochlan—thanks to White’s prowess with the pen. “I knew from the very start what kind of a guy Lochlan was,” says Nivola. “I think that speaks to Mike’s writing—the fact that every scene is a sort of microcosm of who the characters are on the whole. I felt an instant connection with him.”

Vanity Fair: It’s clear Lochlan’s being pulled in multiple directions right at the age where he is trying to figure himself out. What was it like being the monkey in the middle of the Ratliff family?

Sam Nivola: Well, it was easier than it sounds, because I am 21 years aged and went through all that very recently. Deciding what I want to do with my life, what kind of person I want to be. Do I want to go to college or not? How much do I want to defy my parents? Those are all pretty universal childhood experiences. It was pretty straightforward to get into that head space.

The thing that jumps out to me the most is his insecurity. He is a people pleaser, and needs love and attention from people around him. It’s like oxygen to him. I’m totally insecure in the same way that I think everyone is a little bit insecure, but then it was about dialing that up to make it to a point where the insecurity is really a negative leech on your life—making it demanding to live. Which was a tough place to bring myself to. It was definitely made better by living on the beach for six months.

How was it filming in Thailand for half a year?

It’s such a fucking unique, singular experience. It’s a reality show where you’re on the island with everyone. You’re living with everyone. I often resent actors who’d go on a whole thing about how, “Oh, I went so method that I really lost myself in the character.” I’m always like, “Okay, that’s bullshit.” But it really did feel like that at times when we were shooting. You’re 10,000 miles away from home—a twelve-hour time difference to New York, which is where my life is—and that’s the worst time difference you can have. You’re basically not talking to anyone that is a part of your real life, and you’re only seeing the people in the show.