Woody Harrelson clarified why he turned down a role in HBO’s hit series The White Lotus.
“I was set to do White Lotus and very excited,” Harrelson, 63, told The Daily Beast in a statement on Friday, April 4. “Unfortunately, their production schedule shifted and conflicted with a pre-planned family vacation, forcing me to make an extremely hard decision.”
Harrelson’s reps further denied that the actor’s decision was “about money.”
HBO executives revealed earlier this week in a The Hollywood Reporter profile that Harrelson was in talks to play either Walter Goggins or Sam Rockwell’s respective roles of friends Rick and Frank in season 3. The outlet, citing two sources, claimed that Harrelson personally met with Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav to try to increase his salary.
According to producer David Bernard, the actors’ salaries are “not negotiable.”
“Everyone is treated the same on The White Lotus,” Bernard told THR. “They get paid the same, and we do alphabetical billing, so you’re getting people who want to do the project for the right reasons, not to quote The Bachelor. It’s a system we developed in the first season because there was no money to make the show.”
The Daily Beast further reported that Harrelson ultimately signed on to play Frank before Rockwell, 56, was cast in the role. (Rockwell’s longtime partner, Leslie Bibb, is also featured in season 3.)
“He was set to do the show and they moved the date,” Harrelson’s reps told the Daily Beast in their statement. “And because they moved to date, he was no longer available, so they recast. That part was the Sam part.”
Harrelson himself stressed to the Daily Beast that Rockwell is “killing it” on the series.
“Things must be meant to be, though, because I couldn’t have done as fantastic a job as Sam, who is killing it,” Harrelson added in his statement.
While Rockwell has not addressed the casting switch, he told THR how he prepared to tackle the role.
“I was scared that I didn’t have enough time to prep and get into the headspace of this character,” he admitted. “I pitched 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.”
The White Lotus season 3 finale airs on Max Sunday, April 6, at 9 p.m.
