Like Rian Johnson’s Knives Out Mysteries franchise, casting for Mike White’s The White Lotus is always an event. Fans love to speculate who could join the cast of White’s award-winning series, and now Conan O’Brien wants to put his fiery red quaff in the ring. According to legend, O’Brien bumped into White in a restaurant, and the two started talking about The White Lotus Season 3. O’Brien offered to appear on the show, wanting to be a part of White’s hit project, though his proposed role could raise an eyebrow or two.
Speaking with Walton Goggins for episode 19 of Conan’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, the former late-night host recapped his run-in with White, telling Goggins, “Before you guys started shooting The White Lotus, I ran into none other than Mike White in a restaurant. I said, ‘Hey, so the next season of The White Lotus, you’re going down to Thailand, right?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘I was there. I had a great time. I made a lot of friends.'”
Feeling he had an advantage, O’Brien pitched White on bringing him aboard. I said, “‘If there’s a part for me, I’m available.'” When asked for White’s reaction, O’Brien replied, “He looked at me, and he said, ‘You know, there’s a lot of sex work there,'” O’Brien recounted, to which he replied, “I could do that.”
Surprised by O’Brien’s enthusiasm for the desire to hock his wares in Thailand, Goggins and hosts Sona Movsesian and Matt Gourley waited for Big Red to elaborate. “I could play a part where I’m a male gigolo or something.”
Flabbergasted but quick to recover, Goggins laughed and agreed that O’Brien could play a sex worker on TV and perhaps excel at being one in real life. Flattered, O’Brien said he appreciates Goggins’ confidence in him bringing big d*ck energy to a Thailand street corner.
Patrick Schwarzenegger (Gen V), Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education), Sarah Catherine Hook (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), and Sam Nivola (Maestro) join Goggins for The White Lotus Season 3. The rest of the cast includes Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age), Leslie Bibb (The Babysitter: Killer Queen), Jason Isaacs (The Death of Stalin), Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), Parker Posey (Scream 3), Miloš Biković (The Challenge), Dom Hetrakul (Bangkok Dangerous), Christian Friedel (Babylon: Berlin), Morgana O’Reilly (Housebound), Lek Patravadi, Shalini Peiris (The Ark), Tayme Thapthimthong (Mechanic: Resurrection) with Natasha Rothwell (Insecure) returning to reprise her role of Belinda Lindsey from the first season.
“It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus,” series creator Mike White mentioned last year when asked about the new season. “It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier. I don’t know what people will think, but I am super excited, so at least for my own barometer, that’s a good thing.“
Would you like to see Conan O’Brien play a sex worker for The White Lotus Season 3? Let us know in the comments section below.