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Meet Patrick Schwarzenegger, Arnold’s son and star of The White Lotus

Addicted to the new series of The White Lotus? Yes, us too. One of the show’s stars talks about filming TV’s hottest hit — and working out with his dad

Man sitting on a park bench playing chess.
Patrick Schwarzenegger: “I know there are people who’ll say I only got this role because of who my dad is”
COURTESY OF TOMMY HILFIGER
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This article was first published on February 23, 2025

The wait is over. The White Lotus is back and you know the drill: a new episode drops in the US on Sunday nights, meaning we get it in the UK at 2am on Monday. You’ll watch it on Monday night and talk about nothing else at work on Tuesday morning, by which point the internet will be alight with fan theories, think pieces and memes paying homage to the watertight script and fan-favourite characters of the dark comedy anthology series about the rich and misguided one per cent staying at a luxury hotel resort.

All this is good news for the American actor Patrick Schwarzenegger, who not only has a plum part in the latest series — “a dream role”, he says — but also is set to be one of the series’ standout characters. He plays the “southern financial frat bro” Saxton Ratliff, who checks into the White Lotus hotel in Thailand with his wealthy family, including a camp, prescription-pumped, southern belle mother (Parker Posey) and a volatile corporate-boss dad (Jason Isaacs). During filming over seven months in Koh Samui the two veteran actors were surrogate parents to Schwarzenegger, “especially Jason, who is this ball of energy that cannot sleep and cannot not move”. Isaacs is “always needing to do stuff”, Schwarzenegger, 31, says. “It’ll be 2am and he’ll text me, ‘Do you want to play tennis?’ I’ll see him in the morning and say, ‘Dude, what is wrong with you? I was sleeping.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I didn’t sleep.’ It’s insane.”

Over the series, you’ll see Saxton hilariously stressed out when he can’t find a blender for his protein shake, refer to himself in the third person and march around his hotel room nude, boasting how great it is to be rich. “He’s obviously absurd, but we wanted to make him not just a finance douche but also a little bit more likeable,” Schwarzenegger says, the “we” referring to himself and the show’s writer and creator, Mike White. “It’s a mix of you want to hate him but you kind of like him.” Schwarzenegger based the character on “someone I met in college, a guy from a reality TV show called Southern Charm and Bradley Cooper’s character [the arrogant, rich baddie Sack Lodge] in Wedding Crashers.”

Watch the trailer for the new series of The White Lotus

Meet the White Lotus series 3 cast: ‘It’s a big, dark, beautiful symphony’

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A few hours before I’m due to speak to Schwarzenegger, his agent tells me that not only is my interview time being shortened, but also that I’m not allowed to ask about his family. Which is tricky, given that Schwarzenegger has one of the most recognisable surnames in showbusiness, something he tells me comes with “blessings and curses”. He is the son of the bodybuilder turned action film star turned politician Arnold and Maria Shriver, a successful news anchor and niece of the former US president John F Kennedy.

While I can tell that Schwarzenegger isn’t thrilled to be asked about his parents yet again, he is clearly aware that it’s unavoidable. He knows what everyone’s thinking. “I know there are people who’ll say I only got this role because of who my dad is,” he says. “They’re not seeing that I’ve had ten years of acting classes, put on [high] school plays every week, worked on my characters for hours on end or the hundreds of rejected auditions I’ve been on. Of course, it’s frustrating and you can get boxed in and you think at that moment, I wish I didn’t have my last name. But that’s a small moment. I would never trade my life with anyone. I’m very fortunate to have the life and family that I have, the parents I have and the lessons and values they’ve instilled in me.”

Schwarzenegger was born and raised in Los Angeles, his father having come to America from Austria in 1968 to pursue bodybuilding. He met Shriver in 1977 and the two married in 1986. Shriver went on to become an award-winning journalist and producer as well as a bestselling author. They have three more children — Katherine, an author who is married to the film star Chris Pratt, Christina and Christopher (neither of whom are in the spotlight). Arnold and Shriver divorced in 2021 after a ten-year legal battle that began around the time it was revealed that Arnold had fathered a son, Joseph Baena, with their housekeeper 14 years previously, before his election as governor of California.

Arnold Schwarzenegger with his son.
With his dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 2010: “Me and my dad work out together when we can. He’s undoubtedly been an influence in my life”

Schwarzenegger Jr remains close to both of his parents. “I hang with my family all the time,” he says. “I live within a few minutes of my dad.” Given that Arnold is a Republican who endorsed Kamala Harris in the last US presidential election, and Shriver is from one of America’s most prominent Democratic families, I’d love to ask Schwarzenegger which side he leans to, but his publicist interjects when I bring up politics. It’s off the table. What he will say is: “My dad worked so hard to get to this country and would never leave and neither would I. I love this country more than anything and have friends here who are immigrants from all over the world. I will always remain optimistic about our country.”

It would have been easy for Schwarzenegger, with his name and his all-American good looks, to be just another influencer. And, yes, he has dabbled in modelling — last September there was a Tommy Hilfiger campaign with his fiancée, the model Abby Champion, with another one coming this year, as well as an upcoming Banana Republic campaign. But he also started taking acting lessons in high school and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in business and cinematic arts. He is an investor in an electrolyte drink company, a protein coffee brand and a vegan chicken company. In 2020 he and Shriver founded Mosh, a snack company that donates money to an Alzheimer’s charity. “My dad was always a believer that you don’t need to fit into one box, that there are ways to let various worlds collide,” Schwarzenegger says. “His advice is always on the side of working hard and vision and career. My mom is deeper with her advice, setting values of respect and kindness and manners, and always finding ways to give back.”

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He caught the acting bug “early, of course, given who my dad was” — and his initial film credits were as extras with names like “frat boy” or “jock kid”. He appeared in an Ariana Grande video in 2013, around the time he dated Miley Cyrus (the couple split, apparently, owing to their conflicting schedules). His first notable role was in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens in 2015, followed by The Staircase in 2022 and last year’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. When the audition for Saxton came up in 2023, Schwarzenegger was so excited he self-taped that same day. “I thought, there’s no way I’m going to get this, everybody is up for this,” he says. “I’ve been a massive fan of the show since day one. It was my dream goal, I think I manifested it.” He found out he was off to Thailand a week after he proposed to Champion. “I was like, ‘Eek, sorry, I’m gonna be gone the next seven months, so we’re going to have to push the wedding to next year.’” They’re due to marry later this year.

Collage of couples in different settings.
From left: with his fiancée, Abby Champion, in 2024; Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola in series three of The White Lotus
PIP BOURDILLON, HBO

The White Lotus has won two Golden Globes and six Emmys, has reignited the career of Jennifer Coolidge, and launched the careers of Leo Woodall, Will Sharpe and Meghann Fahy. Each series focuses on a different group of tourists in a different location — last time it was Sicily, before that Hawaii. There is a WhatsApp group for those involved in series three. “I’m really active on it,” Schwarzenegger says. “I like staying in touch and keeping relationships with people. Sarah Catherine [Hook, who plays Piper Ratliff] has flown out to LA and stayed at my place, and she’s from Alabama like my fiancée, so they get along. We hang out with Sam Nivola [Lochlan Ratliff] and his girlfriend a lot, and Aimee Lou Wood [who plays Chelsea, the young girlfriend of a rich, older man] I’m seeing this weekend.”

Saxton is by far Schwarzenegger’s biggest role. And his most revealing. How did he feel about getting naked on screen? “I didn’t know to what extent [there would be nakedness]. You do the auditions but you don’t see the full script so you don’t have all the details, then they ask you, ‘Are you comfortable with nudity?’ when you sign on. At the end of the day, this character, from start to finish, is ridiculous and the type of person who absolutely would walk around his room naked without a care in the world. He’s the guy who, whenever he sees a girl at the pool, he’s going to flirt with them whether it’s a mom or a 22-year-old.”

It helps, of course, that Schwarzenegger not only plays the character excellently but works out “five to six times a week” to stay in shape. “Me and my dad train together when we can,” he says. “We were both filming in Toronto recently, staying at the same hotel and worked out together every day. People that don’t like me on social media will say, ‘Why aren’t you bodybuilding?’” He rolls his eyes at yet another comparison with his father. “People always want you to do something else, but he’s undoubtedly been an influence in my life.”

The White Lotus series three is on Mondays on Sky and the streaming service Now

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