Sam Rockwell Nailed His Wild ‘White Lotus’ Monologue in Just One Take

Sam Rockwell surprised everyone with his wild appearance in Season 3 of The White Lotus. His character, Frank, delivers a long and strange monologue that instantly became one of the season’s most talked-about moments.

In a scene that mixes sex, Buddhism, and questions of identity, Frank talks about his time in Thailand and shares details that leave Walton Goggins’s character Rick completely stunned.

The whole thing is strange, funny, and just a bit uncomfortable, but it’s hard to look away. What makes it even more impressive is that Rockwell nailed the entire five-minute speech in a single take.

Rockwell recently spoke about the experience on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman. He explained that he normally doesn’t do a lot of TV and is very careful about what roles he chooses.

But this time, he said he was excited to work with White Lotus creator Mike White and even had a few ideas of his own. “Yeah, I sort of pitched some things to Mike White, he went for some of it and then, yeah, just went in there and did it,” Rockwell said. “Shaved my head and put a tattoo on it and some scars and that was it, yeah.”

The long speech wasn’t improvised. Most of it was written by Mike White, and Rockwell said the writing was so good that it made the performance easier. He asked the team to prepare an earpiece in case he forgot a line, but he didn’t end up needing it.

“You know, they had an earwig. I said prepare an earwig just in case I get in trouble, and then I didn’t need it,” he said. “I did it in one take, and then I think we continued to do one-takers and not break it up too much. Mike’s just amazing, you know, he’s like a Paddy Chayefsky kind of writer.”

The scene happens while Rick is on a mission to find out what happened to his father. Frank is an old friend, and their meeting becomes an unexpected detour full of intense emotion and awkward honesty.

Walton Goggins also spoke about filming the scene. Back in March, he told TV Insider that working with Rockwell was one of the highlights of the shoot. “Sam is not only my best friend, he’s one of my heroes,” Goggins said. “He trusts me and I trust him… we have this symbiotic kind of listening relationship, so he’s going through it, and I’m going through it and listening for the first time every time, and it changes my reactions.”

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