Woody Harrelson recently shut down rumors that he turned down a role in The White Lotus season 3 due to financial disagreements.
Woody, 63, had been considered for the role of Rick (Walton Goggins) but couldn’t come to an agreement regarding his pay, according to an article published by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, April 2. The outlet originally reported that Woody “went all the way to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to see if his salary could be negotiated,” but was ultimately told “no.” However, Woody’s team sent a statement to the publication the following day and denied the claims.
“I was set to do White Lotus and was very excited. Unfortunately, their production schedule shifted, and conflicted with a pre-planned family vacation, forcing me to make an extremely hard decision,” the True Detective alum said in a statement released to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, April 3. “Things must be meant to be though, because I couldn’t have done as fantastic a job as Sam [Rockwell], who is killing it.”
On Friday, April 4, The Daily Beast stated that Woody had ultimately signed on in the role of Frank, Rick’s friend played by Sam, 56, before he had to drop out, but his reps didn’t give a reason as to why his role had changed.
“He was set to do the show and they moved the date. And because they moved to date, he was no longer available so they recast,” a spokesperson for the former Cheers star told the publication. “That part was the Sam part.”
Sam had one of the most iconic scenes in The White Lotus season 3, and his four-minute monologue went viral almost instantly. However, the moment almost didn’t happen.
“To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull this off,” the Way, Way Back star told THR. “I was in the middle of shooting in South Africa on Gore Verbinski’s movie Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and the monologue was, as you have now seen, a lot. I was scared that I didn’t have enough time to prep and get into the headspace of this character.”
He continued, “I pitched [The White Lotus creator Mike White] some ideas, and we read it through, and he was on board with the take I had on this guy. We wanted to make him feel possibly ex-military, super masculine and kind of nonchalant, which worked in contrast to Mike’s writing in the scene.”
Sam’s longtime partner, Leslie Bibb, who plays Kate in The White Lotus season 3, had previously spoken about how impressed she was with Frank’s monologue in the series.
“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 was really trying to talk about with this show,” the Babysitter actress said during a March 18 appearance on CBS Mornings. “He comes in and he’s like, ‘Here’s my truth’ and he’s unapologetic.”
The White Lotus season 3 finale airs on Sunday, April 6, at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
