Patrick Schwarzenegger Warned Mom Maria Shriver About Uncomfortable ‘White Lotus’ Scene

Maria Shriver was not prepared for The White Lotus Season 3.

The former journalist’s eldest son Patrick Schwarzenegger made waves when he bared it all in the season premiere of the hit HBO show. Among the show’s shocked viewers was his mom. She knew the episode involved nudity, but she admits that she didn’t realize exactly what she’d be seeing when she tuned in. 

“I did know that [scene] was coming. He kind of warned me but not really warned me,” Shriver told Today’s Savannah Guthrie on April 1. 

Patrick Schwarzenegger is not like his character on ‘The White Lotus’ 

Schwarzenegger’s White Lotus character, Saxon Ratliff, is the cocky eldest son of a wealthy Southern family. Initially, he comes off as the ultimate alpha male. But his confident facade crumbles following a drug-fueled incestuous encounter with his younger brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola). 

“There’s … something subtly off about him. I wanted people to have suspicions about Saxon, that something about him wasn’t clicking correctly,” Schwarzenegger told Men’s Health of his character, adding that he drew inspiration from Bradley Cooper in Wedding Crashers and Christian Bale in American Psycho when crafting his character.

While Schwarzenegger and his character share some superficial similarities, such as an interest in fitness, Shriver stressed that she didn’t see a lot of her son in Saxon.  

“Patrick is not like Saxon. I just want to clear that up because people say, ‘Is Patrick like Saxon?’ Like, do you think I would’ve raised a Saxon?” she said with a laugh. 

Will Saxon die in ‘The White Lotus’ season finale?

Thanks to his scene-stealing performance as Saxon, Schwarzenegger has become The White Lotus Season 3’s breakout star. His proud mom couldn’t be more delighted for her son’s success. 

“I’m really happy for him,” she told Guthrie. “He’s worked so hard. He takes acting classes. He gets rejected a lot. This is finally the role of his life.”  

Despite some of this season’s out-there twists, Schwarzenegger says both his parents are enjoying The White Lotus. His dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger, thought the premiere was hilarious.

“After the first episode, he was cracking up over the scene in the bedroom. He thought it was so funny and so absurd,” Schwarzenegger said. “And I know my mom is caught up, and she’s loving it. She’s a huge fan of The White Lotus.”

And like the rest of the show’s fans, Shriver is eagerly – and nervously – awaiting the April 6 season finale, when the identity of the dead body seen in episode 1 will finally be revealed. She’s crossing her fingers Saxon isn’t the one who ends up face-down in the pool. 

“I hope Saxon doesn’t die this week,” she said. 

The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO. Episodes also stream on Max. 

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