Sam Rockwell and Leslie Bibb. Photo:
Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media via Getty
Leslie Bibb has Sam Rockwell to thank for landing her role in The White Lotus season 3, so it was really only fair that he got to be part of the show, too.
During an appearance on CBS Mornings on Tuesday, March 18, Bibb, who plays Kate, a mom visiting Thailand with her longtime friends Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Laurie (Carrie Coon), spoke to Gayle King about the “jaw-dropping” cameo her longtime partner made in the latest episode.
“Are we allowed to talk about Sunday’s episode? We must because your partner was involved,” King, 70, asked Bibb, 50, who called Rockwell, 56, “my beloved Sammy.”
King said the scene, which saw Rick (Walton Goggins) meet Rockwell’s character Frank in Bangkok, was “jaw-dropping,” and then asked Bibb to share the story of how Rockwell helped her land her role in the first place.
Sam Rockwell in ‘The White Lotus’ season 3. Courtesy of HBO
“I was in Savannah shooting a Clint Eastwood movie. I got the audition on a Monday, and they’re like, ‘You need to have this in by Friday.’ I was like, ‘It’s The White Lotus. I’m doing a Clint… how do I multitask?’” she recalled, referring to Juror No. 2. “And I was shooting with Chris Messina, who is Sam’s best friend.”
Rockwell was already coming to Savannah to visit, so Bibb told him, “‘I’m going to put you to work, you have to be my reader in the scene.’ So he read the scene with me and then Chris Messina taped the audition on his iPhone and that’s what I sent in.”
She added, “I feel like I had the best audition tape just because I had Sammy and Chris.”
Bibb, who has been with Rockwell since 2007, also revealed that the actor “got cast at the last minute” for the scene, which she has not yet seen.
“I read all eight [episodes] and I remember when I got to this monologue and this scene and I remember thinking, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this on television,’ and I felt like it’s what Mike [White] was really trying to talk about with this show … He comes in and he’s like, ‘Here’s my truth’ and he’s unapologetic.”
Walton Goggins and Sam Rockwell on set of ‘The White Lotus’ season 3 in Thailand. Walton Goggins/Instagram
In fact, she said the candid conversation is something that her character Kate and her catty friends Jaclyn and Laurie could learn from. “I feel like if the women just came in and did what Frank did and [had] been like, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening in my life. I’m having problems with my marriage, I’m drinking too much, I’m doing this,’ whatever, they wouldn’t be gossiping about each other because they would immediately put the shield down and be vulnerable.”
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New episodes of The White Lotus season 3 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
