Walton Goggins Describes Production on ‘The White Lotus’ as a ‘Psychological Experiment’ That Required ‘Mental Fortitude’

Walton Goggins could probably use a nap. For the last year, he’s been hopping from one set to the next, taking part in big productions, like Prime Video’s TV series adaptation of “Fallout,” and indie projects, like the upcoming based-on-a-true-story game show thriller “The Luckiest Man in America,” which had its world premiere at TIFF this week. Taking a break from his current shoot on Season 4 of “The Righteous Gemstones,” Goggins spoke to IndieWire briefly about one of his more anticipated projects, Season 3 of Mike White’s hit HBO series “The White Lotus,” and the bond that grew with his cast-mates over the long, six-month shoot.

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“When you are sequestered for six months and all you have is each other, one can imagine that people get very, very close and familial and you’re roughing it out in five star accommodations,” Goggins said. “But the experience is so creative and psychologically — it’s a psychological experiment as much as it is a creative endeavor because you are a guest and you’re an actor playing a guest, checking into a hotel, playing a guest who is a real human being, who is a guest checking into a hotel.”

Goggins shared similar sentiments with the Los Angeles Times earlier this summer, where he called the process of making the show “meta on every level.”

“We spend all this time together, whether we like it or not, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Goggins said. “We work where we stay.”

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On a personal level, Goggins was also faced with returning to Thailand after previously having visited 18 years ago, a trip he’d made in the aftermath of a personal tragedy. Of getting to explore this place once again and step back in time, Goggins said to the LA Times, “I went to a lot of the places where we’re filming now, the same streets and sandy beaches. I have come so far in my life and been healed on a number of levels. I am so grateful for this moment and the path I’ve been walking.”

Expanding on this, Goggins told IndieWire that, despite how special it was to be given this opportunity, it required more of him than most other jobs, testing his endurance beyond what he expected.

“It’s the longevity of the experience and the intensity of the experience that you have to have some mental fortitude to get through,” said Goggins to IndieWire. “It is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had in my life. And I’m still kind of unpacking, as we all are, the things that we learned about each other and the things that we learned about ourselves.”