'White Lotus' creator breaks silence on Patrick Schwarzenegger's incest scene

White Lotus' showrunner Mike White has defiantly defended Patrick Schwarzenegger's kissing scene with Saxon Ratcliff in the third installment of the HBO series.

For those unversed, Patrick portrayed Saxon Ratcliff, while Sam Nivola played his brother Lochlan in the hit series.

In the fifth episode, the brothers share a drunken kiss, which some viewers have labeled “disturbing.”

Addressing the incest scene, the show’s creator explained to The Hollywood Reporter that “There's some kind of pleasure in getting a bigger audience on board with these erotic moments.”

“And the incest thing, it's really more about someone who is trying to connect with his brother and his sister through the things they value,” added Mike.

He further told the outlet that “I like something that feels kind of naughty. I also want to make the wider audience complicit in those stories so that they're suddenly going down this wormhole with me."

 The White Lotus dropped on HBO on February 16, 2025.