The White Lotus star Patrick Schwarzenegger was a fan favorite around Wall Street when his character debuted this season. But the tide turned—hard—after that scene.
Schwarzenegger’s Saxon was the character viewers “loved to hate” when the season first started, but he was particularly popular with the “finance bros” early in the season when the character was most obnoxious, he told Fallon on The Tonight Show.
“I was in New York the first couple of weeks when the show came out, doing work, and I was staying down in the Financial District,” he explained. “And I would get these finance bros that would come up and be like, ‘Saxon, what’s up? What’s up?! I’m you, buddy. We’re us. We’re the same dude. Yo, bro!‘”
Saxon undergoes an internal transformation of sorts, catalyzed by a drug-induced sexual encounter with his little brother Lochlan. Suddenly, he wasn’t so popular with his previous demographic, he said.
“And then, like, Episode 5 came around,” when that encounter happens, “and they weren’t—they were nowhere to be found.”
“Finance bros” weren’t the only viewers that had drastically different reactions to seeing the actor on the street as the season went on. “Mom” Lotus fans started to take a special interest in the star as his character’s story arc progressed.
“I was walking the other day, and I walked by this table of six women, like moms, I assume maybe in their 40s or 50s. And they just go, ‘Ah, Saxon,‘” he said, mimicking a “poor baby” expression and touching his heart.
Schwarzenegger said he experienced a different form of that evolution at home, as his fiancée watched the series with the rest of the world. “My fiancée was nagging me non-stop when I booked the role,” he said, repeatedly asking if his character “hooks up with” anyone during the season.
“I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ And she was like, ‘Who? Which girls do you get with?’ I was like, ‘I can’t tell you.’ And then Episode 5 comes out, and 6, and she’s like, ‘You got with your brother?!‘” he said to uproarious laughter from the crowd. “She was like, ‘You should have told me that way earlier. We would have had no fights.‘”
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