HBO's newest hit series The White Lotus isn't afraid to take its viewers to some surprising places. While many scenes in the dark comedy satire are laden with excruciating cruelty and secondhand embarrassment, the show has also included some pretty explicit moments—like that full-frontal male nudity from episode one. And in the closing moments of its latest episode "Recentering," The White Lotus did it again, with Shane walking in on hotel manager Armond in the act of rimming his subordinate Dillon.
In an interview with The AV Club, actor Lukas Gage, who plays Dillon, responded to the impact his butt has had on social media, and spoke about the origins of the scene and what it was like filming it with his co-star Murray Bartlett.
"I expect to be surprised by [series creator] Mike White because he is such a brilliant writer, and I love that there’s a natural defiance in almost everything that he does," Gage said. "There's a sense of burning down the system in his writing, and I love that, in this moment, Armond kind of just says, 'fuck it all!'"
He went on to explain that in the first draft of the scene, Dillon and Armond were caught having full penetrative sex, but that he and Bartlett thought they could find a more creative way to expose their characters' tryst, and so they pitched the ass eating element. "We said, 'Wouldn’t it be more interesting if [Dillon’s] getting his salad tossed? I mean, how often do we see that on TV?' I think it's much more interesting and more jarring to walk in on."
The scene was filmed with an intimacy coordinator on set, and Gage had nothing but positive things to say about the experience and Bartlett as a scene partner, calling him "one of the most talented, sweetest, kindest humans and actors in the world."
As for the splash the scene made on Twitter as soon as it aired, Gage couldn't be happier. "I can't wait for my ass to get retweeted all over the Internet," he said.
