“The White Lotus” may be a chaotic crime-fueled satire, but the viral HBO anthology series does have some real-life inspiration. Believe it or not, Season 3 of the acclaimed Emmy-winning show was in part inspired by Bravo reality series “Southern Charm” — at least for some of its characters’ accents.
Series star Sam Nivola, who plays the youngest member of the fictional Ratliff clan in Season 3, told People that “The White Lotus” series creator Mike White made “Southern Charm” required viewing for his onscreen family. The Ratliffs, played by Nivola, Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, are an affluent family from the Southeast who are vacationing at the Thai resort.
According to Nivola, his onscreen father (and real-life Brit) Isaacs took the “Southern Charm” inspiration literally.
“Mike told us to go watch ‘Southern Charm,’” Nivola said. “In fact, Jason Isaacs, who played our dad, kind of modeled his whole accent and character off of [that cast].”
Nivola’s onscreen sister Sarah Catherine Hook, though, was exempt from studying the series due to already being from the South.
“I’m from Alabama,” she told the outlet. “I was like, ‘[Mike] didn’t tell me to watch ‘Southern Charm’! I’m feeling left out.’”
The Bravo series “Southern Charm” is currently in its 10th season and follows the personal and professional lives of a group of socialites in Charleston, South Carolina. And the “Southern Charm” cast is more than OK with being part of the “White Lotus” lore. Former series star Cameran Eubanks, who was a main cast member on “Southern Charm” for its first six seasons, cited how accurate Isaacs’ accent is especially.
“Many of y’all are echoing what I thought as soon as I heard the dad speak,” Eubanks wrote in an Instagram Story post. “‘Damn, he sounds like Thomas Ravenel!’ That dialect is NOT North Carolina. It’s old Charleston.”
Isaacs previously said in an HBO TikTok video that his character accent is “very specific.”
“It sounds a lot like the other Southern accents, but it’s got two vowels in it that sound like upper class English,” Isaacs said. “So, it is weird because nobody listening is used to it, only the people who live locally.”