The White Lotus gay sex scene explained by Mike White

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers up to Episode 5 of “The White Lotus,” which airs Sundays on HBO and streams on HBO Max.

Season 1 of The White Lotus left the jaws wide open when Murray Bartlett’s Armond was caught face deep in the ass cheeks of his employee Dillon (Lukas Gage) at the end of the fourth episode. But with the latest episode of Season 2, Mike White’s HBO series may have topped that (pun intended).

The White Lotus introduced new characters and conflicts last week when English millionaire Quentin (Tom Hollander) recruits Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) and her assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson) to join him, his flamboyant friends and his handsome nephew Jack (Leo Woodall) partying at the beach club. Portia’s budding affair with Albie (Adam DiMarco) begins to flare when Jack takes an interest in her, leading to an awkward, jealous showdown at the bar between Portia and Jack and Albie and Lucia (Simona Tabasco). The most shocking revelation, however, comes when Tanya is roaming around Quentin’s palazzo late one night and walks in on Jack having sex with his, um…uncle?

Speak with diversity Before the Episode 5 premiere, White said the scene “echoed” Bartlett and Gage’s moment in Season 1. Both feature a character coming in for gay sex behind closed doors, and both appear two episodes before the finale.

“As a gay guy, it’s a pleasure for me to portray gay sex as transgressive again,” White said. “It’s dirty… men have sex and you have this ‘psycho’ music underneath. It’s just fun for me.”

White continued, “I just find transgressive sex sexier. I guess I’m old school. There’s that gothic vibe when you walk through a haunted hotel or haunted house and people are having sex behind closed doors.”

As for whether Quentin and Jack are actually related, White teased, “Well, you have to see that.”

While Hollander told diversity Knowing about Quentin and Jack’s intimate moment when he landed the role, Woodall said he wasn’t sent a script until a few weeks after he landed the part.

“When I found out about the scene, I was speechless for a while,” Woodall said. “I’m such a huge fan of Tom, and when I heard he was going to play my uncle, I was like, ‘This is unreal.’ And then when I found out that I was going to bang him too – it was kind of surreal. Everything Mike White does with this show is kind of perfect, so there were no reservations about it. It felt like an incredible ‘wow’ moment.”

As for filming the scene, Woodall said it was a gated set and they worked with an “incredible” intimacy coordinator, Miriam Lucia. After figuring out the logistics of the scene, they shot it from two different angles.

“It’s more technical than anything when you actually do it,” Hollander said. “You know, ‘Is that the right angle? Does that look right?’ But there was also a mutually respectful energy between us. And on set, the production was very tender in those moments. It was certainly around this one. We just wanted to do it right.”

Hollander added that the actors “were sprayed with some stuff to make us look like we were sweating” — “oily stuff,” interjected Woodall.

“There’s fantasy, and you go through your head and you’re like, ‘I hope I look good.’ But when they say action, in a way, and you actually think to yourself, “I want this to be a real representation of an intimate moment between two people.” They just want to do it right,” Hollander said.

When asked if they warned friends or family about what was to come, Woodall said he told his father not to let his 6-year-old brother watch the episode, but other than that he “didn’t tell a soul.” , because I want to see their faces — or at least get their reactions without being asked.”

Referring to the nervousness ahead of Sunday night, Hollander said: “I suppose I’m excited. There’s a bit of anxiety – I’m not exactly sure what it has to do with – but mostly I’m excited.