Patrick Schwarzenegger is 'White Lotus' Season 3 breakout, and ...

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'White Lotus' Season 3 trailer: Rich people and death in Thailand

The trailer for HBO's "The White Lotus" Season 3 brings viewers to tropical Thailand and death is in the air.

You might check out Patrick Schwarzenegger in "White Lotus" Season 3 for the famous last name. But the actor's performance in tropical Thailand will have you sitting up in your beach chair.

The son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kennedy scion Maria Shriver pops in Season 3 of the critically acclaimed HBO series (Sundays, 9 EST/PST and streaming on Max) as Saxon Ratliff, the eldest son of a vacationing affluent North Carolina family.

The apple of snooty mom Victoria's (Parker Posey) eye, who works the family finance business with his dad Timothy (Jason Isaacs), party-loving pool cretin Saxon is this season's poster boy for misguided masculinity. Yet the character genuinely loves his family, including younger siblings Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), a college student, and teenager Lochlan (Sam Nivola).

"Saxon's despicable, outrageous, lacks a filter, all these things," says Schwarzenegger, 31. "But at the same time, I wanted (viewers) to think he's funny and spoke some truths – so that you kind of rooted for him, in a weird way."

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Even if you don't root for Saxon, it's impossible to deny it's a breakout role for the actor with an unmistakable Hollywood pedigree. Schwarzenegger has worked his way up from credited roles like "Jock Kid" in "Benchwarmers (2006), "Frat Boy" in "Grown Ups 2" (2013) and Romeo to Ariana Grande's Juliet in the singer's "Right There" video. In 2022, he starred as Todd Peterson, the real-life, party-loving son pulled into his father Michael's (Colin Firth) murder drama in HBO's "The Staircase," and as a Navy SEAL in "The Terminal List" (costarring with Chris Pratt, who is married to his sister, Katherine Schwarzenegger). The role of look-alike quarterback Tim Tebow in FX's "American Sports Story" followed last year.

Landing a role on Season 3 of "White Lotus" was a "dream" for the superfan, whose video audition for creator Mike White hit just right. "I heard it was exactly the vibe that they wanted for Saxon. Once I got the role, (White) was like, 'This is what I'm looking for,'" says Schwarzenegger, who shed tears of joy with his family when he was cast, posting an emotional video on Instagram.

'Saxon leads with his penis ... that's how he walks'

However, he was suddenly faced with the prospect of shooting for more than half a year in Thailand, just after proposing to his longtime girlfriend, the model Abby Champion.

"I literally got engaged at the end of 2023, and then the week later, I booked this role. I was like, 'I'm going to Thailand for seven months,'" Schwarzenegger says. "It went over great. She's super supportive of my work and career – as I am towards her career."

The wedding was pushed to 2026 as Schwarzenegger honed the character, right down to the shoulders-back stroll: "Saxon leads with his penis; quite literally, that's how he walks," he says.

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The athletic actor didn't have time to pump up for Saxon: He was busy filming drama "Billy Knight" with Charlie Heaton and Al Pacino. But he worked on Saxon's physique on the Thailand set with intense sessions that often started at 4 a.m.

"If you look at Saxon in Episode 1 and Episode 3 side-by-side, I gained a lot of muscle and size," says Schwarzenegger, who says White, his frequent early-morning workout partner, told him to cut the weights. "Mike was like, 'Dude, you've got to stop lifting. You're getting too big. The continuity (between episodes) doesn't work.'"

Schwarzenegger has one thing in common with Saxon on 'White Lotus'

The Ratliff family's privileged life teeters on the cusp of being torpedoed as father Timothy furiously attempts to contain a business scandal exploding back home. But Saxon is oblivious as he tries to mold his resort roommate, younger brother Lochlan (played by Nivola, another acting scion; his parents are Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola).

Schwarzenegger makes clear that he has little in common with Saxon, except for similarities in the dominating paternal relationship. "This idea that he's living in his dad's shadows – really vying for his dad's support and approval – he has that kind of weight on him; that's something I deal with in my day-to-day life," says Schwarzenegger. "And then there were a lot of things that were just completely different."

He didn't let his action-star dad, a former California governor, or his famous mom in on his acting process. Shriver, who visited the Thailand set while Arnold Schwarzenegger was shooting Netflix's "Fubar," is a major "White Lotus" fan. The weekly plot reveals will be nerve-racking. There's the emotional performance in the critically praised series and the moments when Saxon reveals all of his physique, as seen in Episode 1.

But he doesn't have to be too worried. The power clan descended en masse for HBO's premiere last week (including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Shriver and brother-in-law Pratt) and reviewed the first episode on social media. Shriver raved about her son and the series on Instagram, while his father weighed in too, in classic style.

"What a show!" Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote below a picture power-handshaking with Patrick on the red carpet. "I could claim to be surprised to find out he has a nude scene, but what can I say? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

The family is on their own for the rest of the episodes. "I didn't want them to know anything, I don't want to spoil it," Patrick Schwarzenegger says. "They love 'White Lotus.' I want them to be able to try to enjoy it as a consumer."