Suddenly, Sam Rockwell is on “The White Lotus” Season 3, reuniting onscreen in Thailand with his longtime friend Walton Goggins.
Rockwell, 56, appears as Frank, the mystery friend Rick Hatchett (Goggins) enlists to settle a deeply personal score in Thailand in Season 3 of the HBO series (Sundays, 9 ET/PT). His appearance is the second major surprise in Season 3, after Jon Gries’ Greg returned in Episode 1.
While most of the other “White Lotus” storylines in Sunday’s episode deal with drunken partying, the meeting between old friends Rick and Frank in the swanky lobby of a Bangkok hotel is subdued, with 10-months-sober Frank drinking chamomile tea. Frank, a local, brings the gun Rick needs to enact revenge against Jim Hollinger, who co-owns the White Lotus resort.
Rick has traveled to Thailand with girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) because he believes that Jim killed his do-gooding father before Rick was born (though his father’s body was never found).
There are many Sam Rockwell connections to ‘White Lotus’
Rockwell’s casting is fascinating on many levels. The “Iron Man 2” villain is the longtime partner of his Marvel co-star Leslie Bibb, who stars as Kate in another “White Lotus” storyline.
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Goggins hinted at Rockwell’s top-secret appearance by posting an Instagram photo during the May 2024 Thailand shoot featuring Rockwell and Pedro Pascal (who has not appeared in “White Lotus”).
“Even paradise can get lonely,” Goggins wrote. “Gatdamn I miss you all!…and these two. I miss and love you boys so much.”
Goggins, who starred with Rockwell in 2011’s “Cowboys & Aliens,” tells USA TODAY that the screen reunion was challenging. “Sam is one of my best friends, and he’s also one of my heroes. It was riddled with anxiety because we know each other so well, and I certainly didn’t want to let him down.”
He does not. The scene between the two emotionally wounded longtime friends is one of the season’s most intense, mind-altering scenes.
“The first words that came out of our mouths, it was as if we were these people our whole lives,” says Goggins. “And it was like we truly had met up after leading this kind of criminal expat life forever. It was everything that I had hoped it would be.”
Frank and Rick are a mystery in ‘White Lotus’
Rick keeps his past mysterious trauma locked up. But at least Frank seems to be further along the road to discovery or recovery, as he reveals to Rick during their first-ever sober meeting. Frank had partied and explored his sexuality to the limit in Thailand before quitting alcohol and shallow sex.
Goggins says viewers still “don’t know the story between Rick and Frank” but that “it says a lot about excess and how one lives one’s life.”
The story continues in next week’s episode as Rick convinces Frank to help him with the next step in his revenge plan (promising not to really use the gun!). Goggins appreciates riding again with Rockwell.
“There’s not a better person I could have gone through it with than Sam,” says Goggins. “I’m just so grateful for that time together with my buddy.”
