EDGE Rewind: A More 'Aggressive' Full-Frontal Theo James Scene Was Cut from 'White Lotus'
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Theo James' full-frontal scene in season 2 of HBO's "White Lotus" has been the talk of the town. But what if that scene was more raw and more "aggressive"?
Well we will never know because it was cut from the show. But the stars got together and talked about it anyway.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, "White Lotus" stars James, Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe and Meghann Fahy got together to talk about the dropping trou and dropping hints about what's to come for the show's characters.
"I thought it was very interesting but also very 'White Lotus' in a Mike [White, the creator,] way," said James about his full-frontal scene. "What he does is — this is Mike's writing — he treads the boundary of how calculated that was, or was it just easy-breezy? On the day, we had to figure out what that was because the original derivation of it, it's kind of full-frontal, if you know what I mean. We shot that and it felt too much, too aggressive. What we came to is a bit more opaque, and that's exactly what Mike does so well. You're never sure a hundred percent of the characters' intentions."
What Plaza's character Harper thought about that moment, she shared: She's really skeptical of this couple, of their motivations, of them as human beings. At that point, she's trying to play nice, she's trying to accommodate, but she's really taken aback. She has no idea if this guy is doing this on purpose in some kind of manipulative way, or if that's just what you do — people get naked in front of each other, big deal," she said. "So it hits a nerve and she doesn't know how to react. She doesn't know how she feels. Without spoiling anything, it plants the seed for stuff to come."
According to Sharpe, "It's the beginning of a series of events that start to expose the cracks in their relationship."
He added, "and it forces them to confront their underlying issues in their marriage."
The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max. Head over to Entertainment Weekly to read more of the interview.