RHAP: We Know Survivor - Christian Hubicki Talks The White Lotus Season 3

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

This week, Rob Cesternino and Josh Wigler talk to Christian Hubicki about his time on The White Lotus Season 3.

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You don't see how the words sing to you. Anna Lee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. It's going how you hoped. Happy face new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob Cicernino back here for some bonus coverage here talking about season three of The White Lotus with a man who's an international traveler himself.

Josh Wiggler, Josh, how are you? I'm doing quite well, Rob. How are you today? I'm thrilled. Chuffed to bits because we are here with one of the stars of the White Lotus Season 3. Did you catch him? And of course, no, of course we didn't. We did a whole ass recap. We did embarrassingly.

Two idiots right here, because we did not catch. Two idiots right here. Numb skulls. This man, along with his amazing partner, Emily, it's Dr. Christian Hubecky. Hey there, it's good to be here. Appreciate you reaching out. I was genuinely curious if anyone would notice,

and it turns out at least one person did. So yeah, we were very busy on Sunday night. We had been dared. And normally, Rob and I like, you know, we both podcast a lot, but it's a little weird when we like podcast together. But people were asking us like, hey, do you want to like just like podcast together real quick? Like, I don't know. Yeah, we were on ecstasy. So yeah, forgive us that we miss some things. OK, but we were raging pretty hard. I've Rob had a hell of a monologue that he delivered to me

on Sunday night. But in case you missed it, Christian and Emily were was that would you say that was the moon party that you were at? Yeah, it was at that Cafe Del Mor. I guess it must be a whole holiday thing that goes on around the island in general that was happening all over the place. You know, we were not subject to squirt guns though,

which I counted as a win. Okay, well. Oh man, I think you would have done fine in a squirt gun battle. So cool. So Christian, could you tell us about how your trip to Taiwan was? Can I just quickly interject for the people who listen to the White Lotus podcast that aren't here from Survivor, we take for granted that there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast who are indeed Survivor fans, but there are also a lot of people who do not know Survivor that well. Survivor fans, but there are also a lot of people who do not know Survivor that well. And Christian, just like Godfather Carl and Natalie early in the season, was once on Survivor

with Mike White. So that is the connection. And in this past episode, in a blink or you'll miss it capacity to the point that Survivor know-it-all Rob Sestrino and recovering Survivor temporary know-it-all Josh Wigler completely missed that Christian was even in the episode, but the survivor detectives of the internet clocked it and here we are today. That's the background on what's going on. If you're listening to this in our survivor podcast feed, did you know Josh and I cover the White Lotus and for the rest of our coverage. Yes, that's also a very important thing to point out.

Head on over to we knowcriptedtv.com. Yes, please hit subscribe. Like and subscribe and tell your friends so that we can continue covering shows like The White Lotus here on RHAP. Okay. I tried to infuse a few extra Hs in there, it didn't work. Okay, it's fine.

Christian Hubecky. So here's Christian. Hello. Christian, do you want to give us your story of how you ended up in the White Lotus? Yeah, sure. It's a kind of a crazy story of happenstance. I mean, a lot of people knew, I think it was all over the place, that the great Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux were going to be on this season.

And Mike had cast them with a specific creative vision in mind. And it's like, it's fantastic. And so, so what, what it was, it was kind of wild in that we, Emily and I were already planning a trip to Japan right around May of last year. So about 10 months ago, we were planning a trip to, to go out in May, uh, because I actually happened to have a conference, uh, in Yokohama in Japan. Uh, we, uh, me and a student had one of our papers accepted for the International Conference of Robotics and Automation. It's a cool paper on an algorithm that allowed robots to sort of walk and roll in a very interesting and predictable way. Anyway, probably not what

the White Lotus audience is here to hear about, but- We don't wanna hear about robots. Robots, they're too scary. And so like we're playing- The native metal. I don't like them. You're gonna take over the world, Skynet. I live for your Parker Posey impressions by the way.

In our house, we do love those. Like love to invest in show, all that business. But like so- 3,1000. So we had, we're planning a trip out there and I had just gotten- Where did somebody say to do 1,000? My son, let's keep him away.

We'll get to him in a moment, by the way. Yeah, let's get to him. You're the future leader, you're the human resistor. Chris is like, can I tell my story is keeping away. We'll get to him in a moment by the way. You're the future leader, you're the one who resists. Can I tell my story, idiots? You're pinging off like all these stories that I'm gonna get to though, it's interesting. So it's like, oh yeah, I forgot,

there is that little element. But like there is, so we decided to plan on a trip for like two weeks and we're like, hey, we'll spend a week at the conference, then a week, you know, to going around Japan doing some other stuff. And as we're planning this trip, just out of randomly out of nowhere. And this is, this is something that like will happen every once in a great while where you'll

get a text from Mike White and it'll be about something completely random. And then you won't hear. And, and, and it happened to be like he was hanging out with one of his actor friends whose daughter for some reason would do an impression of me. Wow. Apparently, so you tape this young woman doing an impression of me and sent it to me. I was like, oh, okay, that's funny. Haha.

I realized. Was it good? I'm told it was good. I'm not a good, I'm told. Yeah, yeah. Emily said it looked good. It looked good. I'm not a good, I'm told. Yeah. Yeah. Emily said it looked good. It looked good. So, uh, and I think that, so at that point I was like, wait, are they're filming in Thailand while we are in Japan, while we are in Japan for this trip, you know,

maybe and, and, and Mike has kind of given out sort of like, at one point he sort of gave out like a general invite to people from the cast. Like, Hey, if you happen to be around when I'm filming a white Lotus, this was like after season one door. Yeah. It's like, yeah, knock on the door. Say hi, right? You know, come on by. So it's like, hey, we've never we've been we had been to Japan. Emily taught English there for a year and we love Japan, but we've never been to Thailand. And it was like, hey, what if we just went to Phuket? What if we like, like, because that's that's the way you get to Phuket is actually through Japan is almost no direct flights there. So we're like, Hey, what if we went there?

And and just, you know, we'd spend a week or two and around Japan doing the kind of like the high frequency lifestyle of going around on trains and stuff from place to place. Josh, I'm sure you would have not relate this in any way. Not at all. Not at all. And, um, and then we just kind of like resort, spa it up for another week and Phuket. And we, and while we're there, we'll visit Mike and we'll see what happens. And so I thought that by Mike, it's like, oh yeah, sure.

Just let us let me know when. And he sort of like teased the idea of maybe I'll drop you in the show. Now I know enough about TV, how non-committal that can be like shooting schedules are what they are. But it's like, hey, Emily, why don't we just go? We hang out. Maybe we see the set, but keep expectations low, right? You know, who knows what will happen. And, and so, so, so we, so we booked the trip out there. We fly out there. We stay just downhill from where the White Lotus was being filmed and Phuket. So they were at the Rosewood, which is a really swanky place.

We were downhill a little bit, but it was still very nice. And we, and, uh, we got there holiday in Phuket, Phuket. It was very nice. It was very end like. And so we kind of got both aspects of this vacation, you know, kind of this, this run around, you know, Japan sort of thing. Also the kind of the spot up kind of vacation was great. And it's sort of my, my celebration and part of that I'd gotten tenure and we got to finally go back to Japan and the East Asia. So that was fun. And, um, how long were you in Asia for this whole experience? Two weeks, two weeks. So one week, Japan, one week, Thailand, basically. And so we, so we were basically there for a week for Thailand and Mike said, Hey, I just got off of a long shoot.

Why don't we just get dinner tonight? And so, so I, so that's the first time I'd seen Mike in, Hey, I just got off of a long shoot. Why don't we just get dinner tonight? And so, so I, so that's the first time I'd seen Mike in a very, very long time. Emily and I went up to where he was up at the Rosewood where they filmed the white lotus. And he was like, the poor guy had been shooting all day. So it's very nice that he even met with us. And so we said hi, and he was telling us about the about the show, what was going on, and nice quick dinner because I know he definitely, definitely wanted to go to bed. And on the way back to, on the

way back to like we're leaving the hotel, we run into like, oh, it might say, oh, this is, this is Patrick. And I'm like, Patrick. And I'm always like, Schwarzenegger. Like she knows her people. I was like, oh, oh, okay. Josh, you can't do an impression, can you? Can you? No, certainly not. And so, and it was just like, Oh, hi, this is Patrick. Oh, this is Christian. And he's on the season on the driver season with me. And this is the briefest of little interactions

with Patrick Schwarzenegger that I got to see. Well, it's cool. So the rest of the week, what was he like? What was Patrick like? Do she is no, no, he had to like the purely like nice guy sort of face like it really was the first time where I saw like an actor before I saw them play the role that they played. And I was like, Oh, oh, that's what that's what actors do. That's what actors do. So, and Mike was like, Oh, don't worry. We'll fit you in the show somehow. Like, Oh, okay. Sounds good. And we assumed we'd be extras.

We had not been sent any scripts. So we assumed there'd be no lines and that's fine. You know, if we could drop them the show, it's great. And so we spent more- Right, Carl and Natalie had a month long experience, their courtship for the show. They had to sign all sorts of stuff. Carl said he had lines that he had to learn.

This is like the the fast forward version. Absolutely. This was we're going to be extras, you know, and so that's great. We didn't even wasn't sure what seemed to be extras in because the filming schedule was getting shuffled around. They had filmed the they were going to that week he was saying, are we going to film the arrival scene? The you know, the famous arrival scene. That's like a full day of shooting on the ocean. And that had to be like pushed back because of storms. So like, okay, so we're seeing the days kind of tick back and we're like, well, we leave Phuket in a week,

we may never actually get to be on the show. Like we just, we just gotta understand that. And so low expectations, we're just hanging out at the spa, we go around Phuket, just doing the vacation thing. And occasionally we get an update and be like, hey Christian, what's your next size? You know, it's like in case you're a, what was it? Who are the people around a hotel who help you carry your stuff? Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Bellhop. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, yeah, exactly. So like the idea is like, hey, I was going to be a some kind of some kind of bellhop around the white Louis. I was like, okay, I'm here in my sizes and I'm conversing with the protege. Yeah, something like that. And it's like, and then the shooting central gets pushed back and they're like, okay, no, we'll put you in a different scene. And it'll be at this cafe. And we'll have you and Emily just be extras in the background. Like, okay, perfect, fine, whatever. Our goal was not to bother anybody. Like the minimally like we're just seeing the sheer scope of what was going on. Like I was like, this is crazy.

We don't want to Mike White to shuffle around his whole schedule for little old us, you know, so like, don't bother anyone was was the mantra. So eventually, the last day we're in Phuket, like literally, we're gonna fly out late that night on a red eye back to Japan to then go back home. It's finally the day of shooting that was gonna happen. So if that got rained out, we wouldn't have been on the show at all. And so we had like a 930 call time and a little van comes and picks us up from our hotel. A couple of people who are on the production crew kind of got picked up along with us and were driving us down to where the uh to where the shoot was down at this cafe. At which point we're kind of getting little dribble hints of like the plot as they're talking with each other. Like the only thing I heard they're like oh you

know they're shooting the um they're shooting the robbery scene. I'm like oh there's a robbery. There's a robbery. It's like the scene but that's otherwise I know very little and we show up and thankfully thankfully we get dropped off like with a bunch of extras at this cafe. Me and Emily, I'm like where do we go? We definitely don't want to be walking around saying excuse me excuse me we know Mike White please tell us what to do. Uh thankfully we bump into Mike White. It's like oh you guys are here it's great it's like it's like and it's like, yeah, so here's the scene, you know, there are these three women that they're going on, like, kind of like a get together tour and like, and they want to have fun. And they're have a health butler. And this health butler takes them around.

And they're going to get into more they're going to get into more than they bargained for at this thing. So now we've seen what they bargained for on the show. So I'm giving away nothing. And so that was started the shoot of the day. So that's how we got there. So onto the island for shooting. So let me ask you, having been on Survivor, is this your first non-Survivor TV set that you're on? Yes. I mean, the only other TV shoots I've done are for like

science channel things. Sure, science channel people come out and that's a very different thing, right? Like getting interviewed. Yeah. And like I knew enough that like I know they're long, like TV shoots are long and boring. Like I was I was telling Emily this like, and Emily lives in LA, grew up in LA. So she would actually see some shoots as well. So she knows what they're like. But like we know they're long and boring. And so we were aware of that. I didn't quite expect how long an intricate, a scripted show of this caliber was going

to be. And so, uh, so we came in outfits. We were told to bring in clubbing outfits, which of course, as you can imagine, I have many in my wardrobe, many. So the night before we had to go into town and buy some clubbing outfits or our closest approximation thereof. Did you go to a Jim Thompson? I don't know what those are. Jim Thompson is a very well-known person

in Thailand history. I don't wanna go as far as to say that Jim Thompson and the character that Walton Goggins is searching for right now are analogs of each other but there's some parallels certainly in that story and also he was like he was like a silk magnet and so you can get all sorts of silk clothes from the Jim Thompson line it's true yeah oh interesting so it's a you know I didn't know silk was magnetic at all but and regardless I think think, yeah, well, yeah, even, even the scientists learned

something. Yeah, I learned something. So, uh, so when it comes to, so that's how we got there. And so we show up and like, they point us toward like the extras tent. And so like we're so, so to get made up. So we did the whole makeup thing. I actually, Josh, I don't know if you have, I actually texted you some images from this dude. So like the, um, so like we went back and they said, oh, okay, this is what you got. That's great. We don't have to make you up as Russians. I'm like, what? It's like Russians, like Russians. So we realized, oh, this scene, it's a bunch of, this is like a Russian club with a bunch of Russians. And it's like, okay, I'm not sure how one gets made up as a Russian, but so we, so basically have this,

just this extra scar that we have just, yeah. Tell us about your character. Yes, so my character, did you have a name? I wish I did. So I think that what I was going for is that, Emily, we're going to be the dorkiest people at the coolest club in Thailand. That's like, that's like this, that's going to be our thing. Like maybe I was LBH number three.

That was my, that was my name. You don't have the right look for the LBH. Okay. Well, the, uh, so that's so, so I mean, it's too much hair. That's funny. And when it comes to getting so we're like, okay, we're just gonna be the background of a scene. We'll just follow direction and we'll go. So we get made up we get some images, by the way, for the video version of this pod. So yeah, so this is so this is actually where we got placed in our scene. So if you might recall that there was a scene where the where the three women meet the where they where they meet the three guys when they

show up. That's like the bar like behind us is where they all kind of met right there. So we were in a shot for that but like we knew we weren't on camera for it. So like that's just that's us that's in our in our looks for the for the for the image right here. And as that and then we got made up at the makeup tent and those people are professionals. Like I just, the sheer scope of all of different camera angles, all of the trucks, like the off, like the kind of the off campus, like tents of like where the wardrobe is. And there were like a hundreds of extras. It seemed being poured into this. It was just a massive operation. And, and, and so, uh, so we start filming and this is part of the story here. So we start filming and right as we start filming rain, okay. And we're like, like Leslie

Bibb and Michelle Moynihan and Kate and, and, um, and Carrie Coons all have to be kind of shuttled off and, um, to the, to the green room, uh, for, you know, cause it starts raining. And then a lot of me and the rest of the extras and with Emily are just like hanging out on this cabana and it's like all this rain. And I'm like, we'd have no idea how we're gonna, how long we're gonna be there for. So Emily's getting hose down. We're getting hose down. So like we're dry, but I think that, so I'm like, I gotta get Emily to someplace other than this. So I'm going to go find an umbrella. So I run out to go find an umbrella and uh and and I come back and get it and escort Emily to uh to one of the one of the other overhangs off camera. And Mike kind of catches us. He's like, hey you guys um uh why don't you you go in the green room

like the green room like with the actual like famous people. I'm like oh yeah come on you go go in there. So, so we go in and sure enough, you have the, the, the three principal cast and so you had the, the three women. Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. You had to hang out with Carrie Coon? Dr. Justin Marchegiani, Ph.D. Hang out is a strong word. Again, primary one, don't bother anyone. And they're just sitting in the middle of the room in their chairs with their, with their names on them and they're reading their phones. And I'm like, I'm not going up and

talking to them. So Emily and I, we kind of shuttle around the back and sit down and who comes up to us but Valentine, his name's Arnis. And it's like, and it's like, I said, hello. Is his name's Arnis? Arn, close enough, Arnis. Oh my gosh. And he comes up, it's like, hi, I'm Chris. It's like, I'm Arnis and he had his girlfriend there. So we were talking, striking up a conversation with Valentine. He's like, what, you know,

what do you guys do? What are you doing here? And so we tell him and, and somehow, of course, I ended up giving a lecture on robot control that somehow got, actually that worked in the conversation somehow. He's like, what do you do? Which is the most dangerous question to ask me. But for those audience members who don't know me,

I'm a robotics professor. So I'm so sorry to all, to Arnis, but he was very, he was such a nice guy. He was so nice. And we were talking with him and I'm tapped on the shoulder by a producer. And they said, uh, you know, we need, we need to dry you. I'm like, excuse me. I was like, yeah, for continuity, you weren't wet in the shot. So what you have in that image there, Josh is me, uh, being dried, uh, so that way I am dry for the next shot, which was only mildly humiliating

as I was standing in front of Carrie Coons, Michelle Moynihan and Leslie Bibb being dried so I wouldn't ruin the shot. So I failed in my mission to not bother anyone. But you succeeded in your mission to be the uncool guest. Yes. Yes, I did. Christian, were these your own party clothes or was this costume? This is we bought this at the downtown in Thailand.

So we were given some general instructions for what to what to wear as extras. Were you given budget? Did you not pay to play? Did you pay to play on the White Lotus? You gotta start somewhere. You gotta start somewhere in this. No, but like, but like, I think you're questionable. Yeah. Well, I think that as extras, you get like an extra paycheck. I think the only challenge was we left the hotel. So I don't think that we never got a check. So whatever, it's fine.

At this point, it's probably sitting in the concierge. ever. It's fine. At this point, it's probably sitting in the concierge. To be clear, we had a great time. We had a fantastic time. So once the weather cleared up, they put us in a shot and they set up a shot where like we were where we were but actually made the made error where we were right in front of that burning logo for the for the cafe. And Mike's like, okay, you know, they kind of situated us in a spot where we would be seen and they would like, hey, and they would play music and we would dance, which is one of the more, you know, as you can tell, I'm a natural, I'm a natural at this. So we did a couple of takes where I danced and one thing was to raise the roof

just now. Yeah, yes. The roof, you know, as an engineer, I know how to do that. And so what I did is that you would know how to do the robot. You know, it's a common stereotype among us robotics professors that we are trying to use the public. Thank you, Josh, for bringing that up. No, it's okay. And I think that and so ultimately, I think one of the last takes is like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm just gonna talk to Emily, like we're

sitting right there, I'm just gonna talk to her. And I thought that that was a much more natural thing for us to kind of be talking to each other. And that's the shot that made the air. And that was great. So you remember what you were talking about? Like, so this is unofficial dialogue. This is not actual dialogue that makes it to air. It's certainly not dialogue written by Mike White. And in fact, sounds like you ad libbed on the white lotus. You know, it's one of my many skills, Josh, is the ability to ad libbed here. Which I don't know if that was like crossing any kind of, there was no stripes or anything. The WJ line here.

I'm a scab. The, the, the Phuket line. But what do you remember talking to Emily about? What were you guys discussing? Well, you don't, you know, you look very emphatic, like you like very gestury in the shot. Well, that's something you got to do all the time. I mean, like again, the most kind of shoots I'm used to are either me starving on an island, which you know, there's that. But number two, they evacuate you to somewhere else. So this is like nothing new for you. That's all normal room that

you all go to where they do hamburgers and Snickers bars. I think this might still be under NDA, Josh. So if you just wipe that from the point. I already burned the bridge, so I don't care. No. And I think that so what the other kind of shoot that I do are these robotic shoots where like you typically it'll be like me with a student with a robot and like we're like talking with each other as if I'm teaching them and then and the thing you do, at least that I do is I say, hey, look at this gesture I'm doing, isn't it great? You're certainly learning a lot when I do this thing. And so that's the way I do my acting.

So those, you know, looking for my acting advice. There you go. An old friend of mine called this theater hands once. That you have to have like theater arms and theater hands. It's like just like wild gesticulation to really add some uh emphasis. Yeah so I mean so that's that's what we do is you know professors every more we wave our arms the less the students get and get disengaged I think. I think YouTubers figure this out as well they just kind of like like whoa and they also talk really fast but yeah

I mean that so we so we filmed that scene and we filmed the nightclub dancing scene thereafter. And I think the thing that was like amazing to me is all the different takes that they would do where they'd set. I didn't understand how like a single camera show operated. Like when people talk about like the office, they talk about it as like, is that a multi-camera show? Is that the phrase for it? I was like, why is it multi-camera? No, really there's only one camera and they have to, if you want a shot from different angle they have to reset up the whole thing, do another take from that angle.

And like, oh my God, it was so much. And just seeing how that translated to like the little monitors and like the way that had all these filters on it, it was, all the details were incredible. I was amazed by all of the work that went into was just a couple of seconds of footage. Visa and OpenTable are dishing up something new. Get access to prime time dining reservations by adding your Visa Infinite Privilege Card

to your OpenTable account. From there, you'll unlock first come first serve spots at select top restaurants when booking through OpenTable. Learn more at OpenTable.ca forward slash Visa Dining. Christian, have you had any takes about the White Lotus as a viewer through five episodes? Well, I mean, I love the White Lotus in general. I mean, obviously I was going to watch it when it came back out and came out in what? Twenty twenty one.

When the first season came out like like, oh, Mike says we're running. Here's the show. Hey, we'll put it on. And of course, you're gonna watch it because you know, you know, the guy. But it was, you know, I find the character for Alec Merlino. Of course. Well, I mean, that's all that's always a bonus. You know, when you get Alec Merlino.

So we're always on the lookout for our friends from the show who are on there. And I mean, Alec had a multi-episode part. A great irony for those who know the survivor lore is Alec has a decent amount of dialogue and you have none, which is not how it went during your final showdown together. There is some irony in that. And I'll tell you, I mean,

they sort of should like make sure this is all out there is like, look, I couldn't be happier with what was on television. Like I did, like one, I didn't want to learn any lines. I, I, I all only lines I know how to deliver the ones I think of. That's all, you know, I'm not an actor. So I'm like, I, that's a lot of pressure. I wouldn't want, and I kind of loved how subtle it was. And actually I was like, when it happened, Emily and I were watching this weekend, I was like, I kind of love this. I wonder if how many people actually noticed.

Cause that would be so funny. Like if eventually people were like, oh, like come back weeks later. I was like, wait, was that Christian? Was that Emily? But survivors- How many minutes later was it? I think I started getting tagged within about,

I'd say about 10 minutes. Yeah. So once one person noticed, but it was, I couldn't be happier. It was just, it was subtle. And frankly, it was commensurate with the amount of time that we spent there. We came on the set for a day

and Mike was kind enough to just kind of slot us in, given how busy he was. Like he's running a whole operation. And like, I mean, if you meet the guy, you like he has this way about him where he's like, it's almost like, oh, you know, I'm not sure if I'm taking this thing very seriously, or, you know, whatever he has that, but he's running a multimillion dollar operation. And, and it's interesting to see that side of him. And we kept filming late into the night and eventually we were like,

we got to get to the airport. We're about to leave. So like we're doing these clubbing scenes. And so we said our goodbyes really quick to Mike and left and realized we never took a single photo with them the entire time we were there. So, no, but, but we were, but I was thrilled. We got to see the set for a day. I got to be embarrassed in front of Leslie Bibb. And you know, what more could I want from the experience? And Emily had a great time.

And so yeah, fun time. Have you been studying the narrative of the show? Are you invested in the who's gonna get got of it all? Where are you at with trying to decode any theory breaking that you've been trying to do here, Christian? I mean, things become a little clearer over time, but in only insofar as Mike has been dictating the pace of that, or the show has been dictating the pace. Like, I would say, and I have no inside information, literally, I told you all the things that I learned that the robbery scene, these women get into some kind of mischief and there's

a health butler. Artist was very nice. Right. I didn't think that you were going to, after Mike put you on the show, then you would come on a podcast to spoil the white lotus. No, I was inside information. Sure. Absolutely. I was making that clear to the audience.

This comes from, I'm not even having to hold back on what I know when I'm speculating. This is all completely ignorant. Maybe though you have a little extra rope having once upon a time cast a million dollar vote for Mike White, I feel like you should be allowed to do almost anything you want in Mike's book. I mean, sort of coming on to a podcast

and spoiling his television program. Well, I mean, just looking as a viewer, there's a couple of things, like, I mean, obviously, I originally don't like Walton Goggins, and I come to like him more. The story that I actually look at, that I'm actually most scared about, is one of, I forget, who's Walton Goggins' girlfriend's

character's name? Chelsea. Chelsea, Chelsea. She's character's name. Chelsea. Chelsea. Chelsea. She's so likable. What's her character are could be that makes me kind of scared for how do you start off of a likable person who's very well intentioned and where do you end up as a consequence? Doesn't mean she has to be the one who takes the bullet, but like, but she's being tempted

to be like, Hey, you know, let's get away from these old guys. Like what happens to her as a consequence? She's the one I'm most character arc scared for of all these people. Yeah, I had a thought recently. What if we're so, because Rob and I, Rob, we're talking about like who's gonna die and there's been some concern, it could be Chelsea.

There's a lot on the show that sort of like points to they're talking about death around her but last time we were kind of talking about it wouldn't be you know it wouldn't be tragicomic enough you know it would just be tragic to lose that character. Could she be involved in some kind of like is like the line that she's gonna have to cross? Does she have to like does she have to like put Chloe down or something like that? Does she does she and Chloe, do they have to become ops in some sort of deadly way? I don't necessarily think that that has to be the case. You know, like look, go back and look at like Aubrey Plaza's character last season where, you know, she could just be somebody who like has her relationship tested in some

way and comes out with some new her and Walton Goggins have like some new understanding about their relationship after that. I don't know if she necessarily needs to perform some sort of like horrific deed or to have something, some trauma happen to her. But she has said that bad things happen in three years. Yeah. Yeah, there's always a lot of symbolism to varying degrees of subtlety in Mike's stuff. I mean, there's the, I forget what the name

of the three monkeys, the Sino evil, Hirno evil monkeys, Like he obviously literally frames a shot on one of those, on those ceramic monkeys, but also like I saw some coverage that like on the boat in. Yes, I saw this too. We saw this too. Yeah. Like where, where, where the three children each have like their own little thing.

Abby Maria texted it to me today. Really? Yes. Wow. It's, it's's a, that's like, there's a lot going on in his shows. I mean, in terms of like, I mean, Mike, in terms of trying to realize like what he's up to. Let's just see Abby on the white Lotus.

I, when the day comes, when we get to like white Lotus 12 and like we've run out of David versus Goliath she'd be very good on the show. Oh yeah. I think that she would be a good fit. And I mean, Mike's an enigma. I mean, it's very hard to say, to figure out what Mike likes or doesn't like in a very specific way, in a specific way.

It's like, it's very hard to figure out. So I think there's a little predicting as to what he wants on a given season, what he wants for a character arc. Like, I don't think anyone saw that that monologue from Sam Rockwell coming this episode. You know, for instance. So there's like, it is interesting to see what he takes that. I mean, I was, I think I had, what if you had shown up to Phuket and he'd said, all right, I've got a banger for you. Get ready. You're going gonna read this whole thing. Well,

an absolute banger for you, Christian. I think I would fear for my job, actually, if I had that like that. But like, but it is funny, I actually love that, like, we're in like this episode, because episodes are very memorable. And like, in a lot of ways, like, it's, it's so funny. Like, I like it just makes for funny story. Like, oh, yeah, we have like a three second cameo on this thing.

But if you're not safe for work stuff, you know, maybe stop after the first, you know, 12 minutes or so, cause it goes like, it's like one of the more like intense kind of content episodes, like this side of Game of Thrones of the kind of stuff that they do and talk about. But like it's, I think that that's, that's par for the course for Mike. You don't know where he's going to go with something. And I think that for a mystery, the show for which there's a core mystery element, that's what you need.

Does that track with your experience of playing survivor with Mike? Like I know that Mike was like sometimes hard to pin down. And that was one of the things that you talk about when, when you voted for him, that you thought that he played like a really genius next level game. But even just like conversationally would he was he a surprising figure out there on the beach where like you just weren't ever really sure what was going to come from him next? Yes, absolutely. Like he I don't I don't know no ways to categorize comedy, but like there is a way that he steers a conversation that keeps you off balance. Like some things made air. Like I was talking to him one time and, and like, and in the middle of the conversation,

he's like, ugh, I have beard hate right now. And he walks off and what motivated him to say that and do that. I have beard hate? Beard hate. He's scratching his beard. It's like, I hate my beard. I have beard hate at the moment. And it was just off the wall. They're like, so it's hard to track where a conversation is going to go with him. And I think that that's, you know, I'm again, I don't know the man that well, you know, but I think that it's certainly not surprising that his show is plotted in the way that it is, the way that I've experienced conversations with him. But also it doesn't surprise you that the show, I believe you would agree that the show

has some significant survivor DNA. Like you view the White Lotus a little bit differently if you are a survivor fan, I think, and you know that Mike White is a survivor person. I can imagine that happening doubly if you were a survivor player and specifically a survivor player with Mike White, that you can see some of the structure of that show infused in this one. I mean, Mike himself has talked about survivor in his interviews as being murder, talked about survivor in his interviews as being murder, you know, that, you know, it's fun murder. I think he's talked about in interviews. So like that's, that's, that's not surprising. And even the format, right? I think I, you know, I, I'm really into the show. I mean, I, it's not, I don't think that it's great because I don't think it would be a show that

I would naturally gravitate to turn on and try if I had not known about, you know, the connection here. And it's very engrossing. It's just these scenes of the act. Anyway, whatever. But like the, but the format each season is, it's similar. And I seen people talk about it's like, oh, it's the same sort of thing. It's gonna be someone who's dead. It's like, yeah, that's what survivors like. There's always, it's, it's the same thing. People are going to get voted out. There's gonna be one person left at the end. It's the same thing, but it's the journey along the way that's interesting. So that's unsurprising. Um, so in a way it makes him intriguing because like you think

you got a line on what he likes and is interesting, but the way that he gets there is very whitey and if you will, uh, and how, and in the way, in the way he gets there in a way it's uns, that's surprising. So I'm glad he kind of settled on this murder mystery element because if it's a bit of a mystery, that plays into his own mystique. All right, only three episodes left and it's really heating up. I can't wait to see where it's gonna go.

Do you have any predictions, Christian? I mean, I could have predicted that Kenny was gonna flip on him. I'm not sure why though, like he didn't think that that was going to happen. I wish that's a survivor. Somebody always flips, right? I'm always flips. Um, I mean, I, I, I, I, I'm of the, of the camp that Belinda won't be killed. Um, I think that's, that's a little, that's a little, she has immunity, right? I think, I think so. She gets, she wins final immunity. So her son doesn't need to worry so much.

Uh, but, uh, I mean, I, I, I, I, I'm not of the kind to make a specific prediction as to which the person is going to die. I think it would be like you said, Rob, I think it'd be tragic if, um, I keep, forget the character's name. Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, that'd be tragic. A little too dark. I think her, her downfall,fall if she had one it would be of her own making and choices and not a stray bullet I would think but yeah I actually was surprised when she got bit by the snake I was like you know that there's sort of a jump scare in that like a snake and a jump scare

normally I don't remember that from from Mike White's show so it's a bit of a twist there yeah that's why I'm worried. That's why I'm scared. Yeah. Who should be the next from your cast to go on the White Lotus? Well, I know Gabby's a huge fan of the White Lotus. I know she's a huge fan. I've always been.

It's right up her alley. The interplay of relationships is exactly what she's into. And obviously, you know, Davey. Where's Davey? Where's Davey? Mike, do you want to play with me? So I and obviously, you know, Davey, where's Davey? Where's Davey? Mike, do you wanna play with me? So I think that, you know, and I twirl on a stick on the beach, maybe, you know, I can imagine either, either of those things happening.

But look, the thing I've learned is that, look, Mike comes up with what he wants to come, comes up with. And I'm just lucky that I happened to be passing by. Yeah. And so, so we got to have this little experience and it was, it was, it was a great bit of fun. And I'm Emily. This is closest friend from your cast, do you think?

Mike? Yeah. That's a good question. That's a good question. I think that, I mean, he did, I'm assuming he had Alec on his show, on his show for so many, like, he was like, I think Alec was on set with him the entire Maui shoot.

Yeah. He's gotta be pretty close with Alec. I mean, here's another like, I think Alec was on set with him the entire Maui shoot. Yeah. He's gotta be pretty close with Alec. Um, I mean, here, here's, here's another, like, like, I think, like, like maybe a story that might explain some of the white Lotus. I think I've told it to maybe you to run before Rob, but apologies if I hadn't. Um, so Mike, uh, uh, after our season went to back to Fiji and, um, and he took, uh, like a handful, a handful of us with him to Fiji. I was lucky to be one of those people. And we went to in Fiji to the floating pizza platform, Cloud

Nine that Josh, you've been. Josh Birkwood Yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Dr. Justin Marchegiani pretty good. Wood fired pizza on a wooden pizza platform in the middle of the ocean. What could go wrong? What could go wrong with that? All those millennials really ruined that for the rest of the Fiji contestants. They blew it on the first Fiji season, but now everyone gets bad pizza, but that was the best pizza in the land.

It was really good. It was good. It was good. So we went to this place. So is it a restaurant? It's not a survivor reward. It's a restaurant. No, it's a restaurant. It's real.

But like Brett LaBelle like puked all over the place or something, I don't know. Like they caused all sorts of mischief and they were never invited back. It's, oh, is that why? That's the story. I don't know if it was Brett, I don't know what happened. I read that thing.

It's unconfirmed, unconfirmed. It's unconfirmed. The mannequins occurred. I don't mean to blast Brett. But I, like, I'll never forget. Like there was, like we were on this platform and like, and you had to take a boat on and off. So if you want to leave the restaurant, you have to wait for a boat to come and

you have to jump on the boat to come and get off, right. And so we were, we had our fill. We were about ready to go, but we had to wait for a boat. And I remember we were up on like, on the deck of this and like, there was a bunch of Instagram, like wannabe Instagram models posing around the boat taking all these shots and they're kind of getting up like right in like Mike's space and he's sitting there just like trying to just drink like on my tie or something like that.

I can just see the disdain on his face for the for the situation he was in at the moment and uh and he said, Christian, this is what hell is. Hell is being on vacation and being stuck with people you hate. And so I was like, and this was before the White Lotus came out. So like, I feel like there's a little bit of that DNA in the White Lotus.

I think the last point for the White Lotus to some extent appears to be survivor and maybe that immediate trip, the return to the Holy Land, right? To go back to Fiji and then to have that form of experience. It isn't like that pure survivor land experience anymore. Now you're getting to see the the Jacklin Lemons of the world at work and having some things to say about that in the canvas that Mike has chosen for himself.

Yeah, I mean, so I mean, I couldn't be more thrilled for the guy. His show is, you know, I think it's number one streaming show in the world right now or something close to that, depending on the ratings, something like that. It's a, you know, so it's doing great. And I couldn't be happier for him. Now, Christian, a lot of the actors in the show have had to do nude scenes. If Mike had said, okay, Christian, I have a role for you, but it involves, you need to do full frontal. Would you have walked off the set? He'd have to talk me into it, I think.

But I've done stranger, no, I haven't done stranger things in that. Wow, coming to Netflix now. Wow. First Max, now Netflix. Cameo, wow. He's in the back, right? I don't done Stranger Things in that. Wow, coming to Netflix now. Wow. First Max, now Netflix. Cameo, wow. He's in the background. I don't know. Max is on Stranger Things too.

There's something, I think if you go, anyone who goes on the show, there's an element of adventurousness to it. While everyone has their lines that they won't cross. You know, it's like, I'm not, who knows? But like- Who knows until you're there, right? Yeah, yeah. You can walk up to the edge and see what's on the other side How deep does this how deep down does this rabbit hole go put me on the spot here Rob? Yeah

So it's a but that would be question It would be like it'll be tough question Like look, I have no only go on the show if I was doing full frontal I think that's the only way I would say yes And I think that I think that you know, thankfully for someone like me who does not have acting aspirations, you know, it's just a fun little diversion. But like for someone who's really like, you know what,

this is my chance to break into the business. Christian, you're not an actor. You don't need to do full frontal and be one of these prostitutes. What are your values? You have values. You keep your clothes on. But yeah, so that's, so that, that's the story. So that's the story. And so like through happenstance, we were in that we were as close as we're going to get to that part of the world. And

so we got to hang out and Phuket for a bit and then come back. And no one knew about it until Sunday, which was great. That's great. That's awesome. That's so much fun. What a fun time. So fun to see you on the show and thank you for sharing your story with us.

Thank you very much for having me. I just, you know, I hope that everyone enjoys the season. You know, we, you know, Emily and I, we brought so much to the scene, of course. Yes. We appreciate that you- I was pretty out. I mean, a lot of people were saying that like,

oh, season three, what a slow burn. And then I think that this episode ramped it up for a lot of people. So you could take some credit if you want. Yep. You know, me and secondarily, Sam Rockwell. I think me, actually no, Emily, me, Sam Rockwell. I think would be the ranking. Yeah, the big three. All right, Christian, anything else you want to tell people to check out? Anything you're doing? I mean, not in particular, I'm just professing it up. Hey, Blood on the Clock Tower is going to be live on Saturday afternoon on RHAP.

That's right. Thank you very much for reminding me. It's been a long time coming. So we will be releasing a third episode of Blood on the Clock Tower. Survivors play Blood on the Clock Tower. Quite a fun episode. So feel free to check it out. We'll release it on Saturday, I believe.

Watch RHAP.com to check out our YouTube channel. Indeed. Indeed. But other than that, just, you know, just, just trying to just muscle through the semester, just one day at a time. Okay. You're almost there. All right. Uh, Josh, what's coming up for you? A busy severance a week, right? Yes. Right. Severance Christian. We are waiting for it to be much further along then I'm gonna binge it. So we've been waiting. Oh, interesting. So yeah, mystery shows,

like multi-season long mystery shows, I've been burned one too many times. So I'm waiting until people say- What a level of self-control. Yep, yep, yep. It's also not my business. You're a podcast in business. You have no choice in the matter.

You gotta check out all these things like instantly. Yeah, that's true. But I'm thrilled to do it, especially with Severance as it is, getting darn close to the end of the line, as in it's at the end of the line. It's the finale this week. We got a final episode here with a lot of business

still to accomplish. Myself and the doctors, Amanda and Melissa, will be recapping it. We'll get some theories and feedback. We're working on a bonus episode or two. So a lot going on behind the scenes as we are closing severance out and so much else happening on we know scripted tv.com yellow jackets is getting relatively close to the end of the line here. Obviously White Lotus is getting close to the finish line as well. The last of us

will be on the other side of that. Andor is coming back in April. Are you an Andor person, Christian? I'm not. I'm more. I have been a Star Wars person in a little bit, so I think I've got burned by Mando. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did. Mando's what did it? It didn't happen sooner than Mando. Mando was the last chance. They was the last chance that they had. Yeah. Yeah. It was what they did with the Boba Fett. No, it's in general. Like, I don't want to talk. I don't want to talk badly about Star Wars, but it's a yeah. I think that the first season of Mandalorian was like, you'd be a big rogu guy. You know, Grogu's fine. He's cute. I think that... Oh my God.

He's fine. He's fine. He doesn't need a name. You're out on Baby Yoda? Call him Baby Yo-Yo, but you cowards. Jesus, his name is Baby Yoda. Just call him that. That's Grogu's okay.

Rob loves Grogu. Grogu the name of the character. Rob does a killer Grogu impression, actually. I do? Yeah. Now you're on the spot. You're doing it right now. You're like, fuck. Oh, he doesn't talk? Yeah. Now you're on the spot. You're doing it right now.

Oh, if he doesn't talk. Oh. Okay, I see what you did. Now, so what he would say, Andor is continuing, I hear good things. You'd love it. Yeah. You'd love it. All right.

Well, even if Christian's not watching it, you can check it all out here. We know scriptedtv.com. Josh, anything else? No, of course we're gonna be resuming our patron only survivor heroes versus villains coverage next week. We had an off week thanks to 15 years ago, March Madness,

giving us a week off. We didn't know at the time, but thanks. Thanks, basketball gods. We'll be back with a double boot coming soon. All right, and of course, episode six of the White Lotus coming up on Sunday. Take care of a good one. Bye