Jason Isaacs talks The White Lotus and Trump’s America

The Netflix series is the talking point of many conversations at the moment due to its ‘controversial’ content including incest between two brothers…

The White Lotus performer Jason Isaacs spoke with The News Agents today and concludes that he does not know whether his “clear dislike for the current President of America” will mean he will not be allowed to work in the US and shares that he has been advised to “completely wipe” his “social media history”. He noted, ‘there are many things I would like to speak out about… [but] I’m aware that all I would do is invite a tsunami of either bots or a campaign that would affect my career badly.’

And Jason also revealed to the Global podcast that the cast “all went slightly nuts” whilst filming in Thailand: “I’m old and sensible, but it’s a place where people are very unanchored, halfway around the world from their loved ones, and alcohol and other things are flowing and there’s an off-screen White Lotus”

He also revealed why he briefly considered not taking the role of Timothy Ratliff in the hit series, ‘I spoke to Mike [White], and I said, ‘What am I going to do, mate? I think it [his performance] will be really boring.’

Speaking to podcast hosts Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, Jason also told The News Agents that it is ‘unquestionably true that if you have strong views, and it’s thought that you will alienate part of the audience, that that might well strike you off a list somewhere’ when being cast in Hollywood, and shared that, ‘If I avoided the people whose views I found repulsive or at least ill informed, I’d be doing one man shows the entire time.’

In the wide-ranging interview, Jason also reflected on the difference between Season 3 of White Lotus and the first two series, Jason. “I think that Mike White is a magnificent artist, and so people who are expecting him to repeat himself are likely to be amongst those people on the internet saying, ‘Why isn’t it as funny?’ Or ‘Why isn’t Jennifer Coolidge in it?’ He’s grown and set himself new targets and become more ambitious, I think, as a writer. He has always been a great writer.

Jason Isaacs on Global’s podcast The News Agents

“But with the success of the show, I think he’s been empowered to go deeper and further and wider. And so, this one, is quite consciously set in Thailand, where people go to seek spiritual enlightenment, but these are rich people who go to rent spiritual enlightenment, as long as it sits comfortably on their Burberry shoulders. So, I think he’s doing interesting things, and it certainly isn’t categorizable as an Eat the Rich show. It started off that way. I think the first season was, and now it’s whatever he wants it to be.”

And commenting on the star of The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan, stating he has found it difficult to get actors to appear on stage with him following his portrayal of President Trump, Jason noted, “When they started making The Apprentice, I don’t think it occurred to any of them there was a chance he’d be in the White House again and that he would hit the ground running and just devastate all the very existing pillars of democracy and undermine the foundations of American government. So, at the time they’re making it, I wonder if they made it would have made a different decision if they’d known how the election would have gone last year.”

He summarised, ‘You asked me to predict what will happen, I think everybody is slightly in the state of shock and awe at the attack on liberal democracy that’s happened over the last couple of months, and nobody quite knows where the dust is going to settle.’

The News Agents podcast, Friday 28 March 2025 on the Global Player