[This story contains major spoilers from The White Lotus season three finale, “Amor Fati.”]
At long last, Rick Hatchett found the man who ruined his life… then went ahead and ruined it some more.
The final episode of The White Lotus season three ended with a fateful bang for Rick (Walton Goggins) and girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood), two of three series regulars who were gunned down in the climax of creator Mike White‘s latest work. The third regular, of course, is the man Rick was hunting all season long: Jim Hollinger, the hotelier played by the iconic Scott Glenn. After one final fateful conversation, Rick grabbed Jim’s own firearm and shot the man in cold blood, only to learn a startling truth: Jim didn’t kill Rick’s father… Jim was Rick’s father.
There’s little time for the revelation to sink in before the bullets start flying, catching Chelsea in the crossfire and ultimately striking Rick down as well. But now, while we wait for a fourth season, there’s nothing but time for White Lotus loyalists to process the finale’s three major deaths. Below, The Hollywood Reporter speaks with Glenn about his side of the shocking ending, how he built Jim from the ground up, and why the actor thinks his very best work is still ahead of him in the upcoming action film Eugene the Marine.
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Did you know the full shape of Jim’s story when you first signed on — that not only that he would die, but that we would learn he’s Rick’s father?
I did, yes. All of it was in the script, so that was part of the deal. We shot it different ways. There’s part one version that I died slinking into his arms saying one last word, that they left out. The way it is now, I’m just lying back there. So conceivably, Thailand’s a great medical country. Maybe I could go through a bunch of operations and survive. Who knows! But it was great fun being part of Mike White’s traveling circus.
What was your entry point into this character? Was there one piece that fell into place, making the whole puzzle connect?
What interested me about the guy was, okay, when all the main storylines reach the end of their week at the White Lotus: Thailand, they’re all going home. I am home. I’m somebody who’s lived off and on in Thailand for 60 years, steadily for the last 50 years. I remember there was one scene, which you watch in the show, but you don’t hear it. But it was after Walton and I had that scene in the restaurant where, from his point of view, I insult his mother, and go off into the other room to talk to my bodyguards. In the script I say, “Go in and check that guy out. He’s the guy who gave me trouble in Bangkok.” Something along those lines. It was one of the first things I shot.
Mike said action, and I just stood there, and stood there, and finally, Mike came on set and said, “Is something wrong?” And I said, “Yeah. I don’t know what.” And then it dawned on me: “After living here for 50 years with a Thai wife and two Thai daughters, why on Earth am I speaking English to these two guys?” Lek Patravadi, who plays Sritala, has a school in Bangkok, so she’s also a teacher in addition to being a phenomenal actress. I asked her, “Can you teach me quickly and tersely how to say these things to these guys in Thai?” And that was really the hook, playing somebody who is beyond an expat, and has now, to a large extent, become Thai.
There were other things that never got talked about on the show, and never were going to come up in the script, but for me, allowed me to play the part with some more authority. In Thailand, the main symbol of Thai Buddhism is the lotus, and there are three. There’s the Blue Lotus, which is wisdom and intelligence. There’s the Red Lotus, which is love and compassion. But the rarest is the White Lotus, which is spiritual perfection. I don’t know if Mike knew all of that back when this thing started in Hawaii [in season one], but in my mind, that’s why Jim named the hotel The White Lotus.
Scott Glenn with Walton Goggins. Max
Jim never tells Rick he’s his father. Instead, he has some fierce final words for his son. How did you justify that choice?
I thought about that a lot, and the only thing that would work for me was, I changed my life. When I tell him, “I always knew your mom was a lush and a slut. I didn’t know she was a liar, too.” The truth of the matter is, [Jim] was also a lush and slut. In my mind, the two of them had a highly sexual, crazy drunken relationship, and we never liked each other very much. At one point, she got pregnant and said, “I’m pregnant and I don’t want to have your fucking kid.” And I said, “I don’t want you to have it either. Get an abortion.” She said, “An abortion costs $5,000.” And I scraped together some money and the next day came to her and said, “Here’s 15,000. Get the abortion and knock yourself out. I’m out of here.” And he would have left assuming that she had the abortion. And when Walton shows up, I understand he was the abortion. So why? Because I think when my character left the States and left Walton’s mom, I closed the door on that part of my life and started a new one. And now I’m at the point where I don’t want to go back into my old life at all.
You mentioned a take where you said a word before dying. What was the word?
One word: “Buakaw,” which means, in Thai, “White Lotus.” Buakaw Banchamek is arguably the greatest knockout artist in the sport of Muay Thai, which is the Thai kickboxing, and he’s just coming to the end of his career. He’s old for that sport, maybe 40 or 45. He gave himself this name 15 years ago, way before there was ever such a thing as a White Lotus TV show: “Buakaw,” the White Lotus. When I got to Thailand, one of the things I did in preparation for the part was to find something that would give me a rhythm of the country. So I studied two types of martial arts, one of which was Muay Baram, which is Muay Thai but without the gloves and with no rules. I started doing it to get a rhythm of the character. Brando taught me years ago that every country has its rhythm, and if you want to get in character, find that rhythm. So when I started getting into it, people would ask me, “Do you know who The White Lotus is?” And as a big sports fan, of course I did, but I hadn’t connected at all that I was also doing a show called The White Lotus.
Why was it an important thing for Jim to say to Rick at the end?
It wasn’t to Rick. It was kind of to Sritala. But it was more just to myself: the realization that I’ve been shot, I’m dying. In my mind, part of Jim coming to Thailand had to mean he accepted Thai Buddhism. There’s that great scene where the monk talks to Jason Isaacs’ character about death, the happy return… so that’s why I said that.
Tayme Thapthimthong as he shoots Walton Goggins, carrying Aimee Lou Wood, in the season three finale, after Goggins’ character shoots and kills me Max
Tell me a bit more about working with Mike to develop the character.
Mike is a joy to be around. He not only puts up with my crazy way of acting, but encourages it. He’s so welcoming, and so encouraging, and just a really cool guy. When they asked me if I wanted the part, I called Mike up, not realizing he was in Bangkok at the time. It had to be four in the morning. I told him that ever since making Bad Monkey [on Apple TV+], my fix on acting has changed a bit, and I had to let him know ahead of time. Because when you say action, I’ll do what it says physically to do in the script: “He walks across the room,” and I’ll walk across the room. But if it says, “walks across the room as if in a trance, mumbling and feeling sad,” I just mark that shit off with magic marker. I have no idea how I’m going to do it from take to take. I really don’t! I told him this, and he started to laugh: “Well, I don’t know what I’m doing, either.”
Somebody was asking me how it felt to [make this show], and was I still thinking about that experience? And my true answer, which is probably true of other actors as well, is I like to look ahead, not over my shoulder. So the end of this season means to me the completion of two of the three parts I did over the last two years. One was Bad Monkey, this one in White Lotus, and now there’s one left, which is in the can and unreleased: a thriller called Eugene the Marine. That I think is my best work I’ve ever done.
That’s a high bar!
It’s action-filled. It’s unpredictable. It’s original. Amazing performances by Jim Gaffigan in a way you’ve never seen him. Annette O’Toole is incredible, and Jeremy Bobb… so we’re all looking for a theatrical release for that. That’s where my head’s at now.
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White Lotus season two is now streaming on Max. Head here for all of THR’s season three interviews and coverage, including our uncensored oral history with White and the cast, breakdown of the finale and finale interview with Jon Gries.
