Patrick Schwarzenegger Wants You to Hate Him. But Maybe Love Him a Little Too?

ONE OF THE first things you notice about Saxon, the oldest child in The White Lotus season 3’s Ratliff family, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, is just how crass he is. Exclusively clad in an old-money, pastel-colored polo (when he’s wearing a shirt at all), Saxon is foul-mouthed, constantly (and vocally) horny, and almost devoid of respect for the characters around him—especially his sister, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook). Imagine the jerkiest jock from a 1980s college comedy, then imagine he spends his time listening to all the manosphere podcasts 2025 has to offer. That’s Saxon.

“Saxon leads with his penis,” Schwarzenegger says, wearing a light-blue suit on a sunny Thursday morning at Men’s Health’s New York City office. His legs are crossed, and he’s hunched over, at ease, in a comfortable seat as we talk—a stark difference from the broad-shouldered arrogance his character wields as a weapon. “The chest and shoulders are back,” he says, “and he walks with bravado.” The 31-year-old found all sorts of ways to make his performance a particularly physical one: aggressively readjusting his crotch when he gets out of the pool; moving his shoulders from side to side while wielding a bottle of beer and proclaiming that “shit is about to get craaazy!” Mike White, the Emmy-winning creator of The White Lotus, even gave specific notes as to how Saxon should walk.

“I would walk, and Mike would scream from over the camera, ‘Walk richer! You don’t look rich enough! Be more rich! Rich, rich, rich!’” Schwarzenegger says. “This guy’s a character, and if I just walked how I would normally walk on the beach, it doesn’t play the same way as if I’m strutting like I’m on a catwalk. This guy is just so over the top.”

But as the season has gone on, things have changed. “Once the alcohol and the drugs come into play, and everything that comes after that—that changes the way he carries himself.” Schwarzenegger is referring, of course, to the one-two punch of the season’s fifth and sixth episodes, when a drug-addled night filled with partying gets very bizarre and the incestuous subtext of Saxon and his brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) becomes something more, uh, solid.

As Saxon starts to shrink into his body, Schwarzenegger says, “That’s where Mike hopefully really gets a performance out of me—in a weird way, you start to like Saxon, and you almost feel bad for him.”

As the sun begins to set on our third trip to The White Lotus, Schwarzenegger talked to Men’s Health about training for Saxon’s shirtless scenes (hint: it involved a lot of pad thai), the aftermath of the show’s shocking fifth and sixth episodes, his relationship with the cast of his on-screen dysfunctional family, and how his own famous dad feels about it all.

MEN’S HEALTH: You’re a big coffee fan. Did you get your fix in Thailand?

PATRICK SCHWARZENEGGER: You know what? They spoiled me. I’m a cold brew fanatic, and I like it really strong. There’s this one coffee roaster right in Fisherman’s Village in Koh Samui, and they made my cold brew really strong and then gave it to me every day on-set in this little individual-sized bottle. It was perfect.

MH: That got you all revved to go?

PS: It got me all revved up.

MH: That’s good, because you get to spend this season at the most wellness-focused White Lotus resort we’ve seen yet.

PS: It’s funny because we would hear stories about last season’s set, or even the first season’s, and how different it was. They did so much partying, and ours was so oriented on fitness, health, and wellness—even behind the camera, not just on-set. My favorite people to work out with were probably Arnas [Fedaravicius, who plays Valentin], Nick Duvernay [who plays Belinda’s son, Zion], and [producer] Dave Bernad. Mike was in the gym a lot, but he worked out with his trainer.

MH: Your character is very into fitness. He’s always making his shakes, and he’s almost always shirtless. Did you follow any particular training plan before or during filming to look as ripped as you imagined Saxon would have looked?

PS: I’ve always loved working out. We grew up with it. And I change my workout regimens and my eating based on what the character is supposed to be like. I got this job and within three to four weeks, we were filming. It was fast. My first day of filming on-set was when we shot all of my shirtless scenes at the pool, including episode 1, when I’m walking by the pool. And then about four months later, we did one other shirtless pool scene for episode 3. It’s really funny. If you actually look closely, you can see the difference in how much weight I’ve gained. I’m way tanner and way chunkier and more muscular in episode 3. I was working out constantly and eating chicken and rice and pad thai every day, all day. I gained 12 to 15 pounds throughout the seven months we were there, which was not great for continuity, but was fun.

MH: You played a literal superhero in Gen V. How would you compare your fitness approach between characters?

PS: For Gen V, I was probably 20-ish pounds lighter. That’s just because I had shoulder surgery right before filming, so I’d lost a lot of weight. I was actually very soft during Gen V. I didn’t even know we were going to be doing shirtless scenes in that, so I got screwed there!

[The White Lotus] was way different. When we were in Thailand, I would work out with other cast members. Mike White is in extreme shape. He measures everything, including his heart rate variability (HRV) and his VO2 max, with his Whoop band, his Apple Watch, and his Oura Ring. He’s always working out all day, eating a specific diet, and he’s got his trainer there and his chef there. We’d work out at the gyms—luckily, we had a good gym at the hotel. We’d go on beach runs, and runs around the island and in the cities when I was there.

MH: Speaking of Mike White, what was the main note he gave you for playing Saxon?

PS: He wanted this guy to really be a douche, hateable but also lovable, someone you could end up rooting for. And he wanted him to be comedic relief throughout the season. And I think it’s working, because when I walk on the street now, everybody yells to me, “Saxon, I hate you, man! But you’re so good!” “Saxon, you’re so crazy! I love it!” But there will also be humanizing moments throughout the end of the season that might make people question or change their view on Saxon.

MH: The first episode of the season includes a scene between Saxon and Lochlan, where Saxon starts loading up porn on his iPad, asks his brother what porn he likes, then gets out of bed butt naked and walks to the bathroom to masturbate. It felt at the time like a thesis statement for their power dynamic. And by episode 6, we see that it was also a kind of foreshadowing. How did you approach that scene?

PS: When we were shooting the bedroom scene, they had some boxer-briefs that I was supposed to wear, and I was like, “I’m just going to do this naked.” I think it’s better because it’s such a power move. It showed how Saxon just does not have a worry in the world or care about what anyone else thinks.

It establishes the dynamic [between Saxon and Lochlan] from the get-go, from Saxon sleeping in a bed completely naked next to his brother’s, then just walking around naked. And it’s not like he’s covering himself up with his iPad. He just slowly struts to the bathroom. It gives you a real grip on what their relationship is like. And when he’s asking Lochlan, “What kind of porn do you like?” he’s so sincere and earnest with his question. It makes the audience ask, “Is he serious?” If I’d delivered the line in a joking way, it wouldn’t be as bewildering or as suspicious.

MH: Then comes episode 5, where we see Lochlan pushing Saxon’s boundaries. Then in episode 6 we see just how far they were pushed. And now that it’s Saxon who’s being pushed too far, he starts acting and feeling differently. How did you decide to approach everything that happens after Lochlan and Saxon’s night on the boat?

PS: Even more than what we see on-screen, it’s a power shift. Saxon is now a different person, and he’s not totally sure what to think about himself. He’s disgusted; everything he stood for has completely flipped. It’s changed how he walks, how he talks, and how he communicates with his brother. The power dynamic even shifts between him and the ladies. Now, at the pool, they’re antagonizing him and questioning him, and he’s on the defense when, before, he was always on the offense.

MH: What kind of inspiration did you turn to when fleshing out this character and his arc?

PS: I wanted to build something that was new and different but that stems from Mike’s writing. I watched some of the actors I look up to playing jock-asshole roles. I loved what Bradley Cooper did in Wedding Crashers. It could have been very one-note, but it played very well. Then there were elements of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, who’s this really well-dressed, put-together guy—but there’s also something subtly off about him. I wanted people to have suspicions about Saxon, that something about him wasn’t clicking correctly.

That’s what Mike does so well: He wants the audience to believe that anybody and everybody is capable of being the killer or the victim. He wants you talking about it and guessing. And with Saxon, I wanted to mix together those elements of absurd, suspicious, funny, and crazy.

MH: You deliver some really out-there lines too—like when Saxon asks Piper what she thinks women are into. “Gender goblins that tuck their dicks in between their legs?” Does that come from Mike?

PS: Mike comes up with pretty much 99 percent of it. There’s some stuff I’ll throw in there, but most of it is him.

MH: Was there ever a line that was almost a bridge too far?

PS: There’s a lot of dialogue I would cringe at—that I do cringe at, as Patrick—but it fits so perfectly with who Saxon is. Pretty much everything he says is just absurd, but it matches who he is. It matches his personality, it matches how he walks, how he dresses, how he acts, and every way he carries himself. That’s the brilliance of Mike.

MH: What projects did he see you in that made him want to cast you?

PS: I think it was The Staircase. Because during my audition, my callback, and my chemistry read, he brought it up, saying how much he loved it. The Staircase was a big moment for me. It was one of the first seriously dramatic roles I’d gotten cast in, opposite some really incredible actors and actresses—Parker Posey was in it too! It got me seen and taken seriously in a different way than before.

MH: Parker is such an icon, and she’s so funny. Her lines go viral every week. Was it ever hard on-set to keep a straight face in your scenes with her?

PS: It was really hard! There were a lot of scenes that took a long time to film because everybody would just keep laughing.

MH: Saxon and Parker’s character Victoria also seem to have a special relationship compared to her and her other children.

PS: It’s like I’m the favorite kid. Piper will say something totally reasonable and Victoria will be like, “Piper, nooo,” or “Come on, Piiiper, relax.” And Saxon will say something disgusting and she’ll just start laughing. It shows you what kind of mom she is. She’s so outlandish and absurd, but our relationship is special.

MH: How did Colin Firth, in The Staircase, and Jason Isaacs, in The White Lotus, compare as on-screen dads?

PS: Both of them could snap in and out of their accents at the drop of pin. They were in character, and then right when the scene ended, they would go back to their British accent. I became really close with both of them, actually. But the experience with Jason was unique because The White Lotus is so unique, and you’re all living together for seven months.

MH: Did you grow particularly close with Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook, since you play siblings and share so many scenes?

PS: Very close. They really do feel like younger siblings to me. We continue to talk daily. We have our own group chat, and we have our family group chat [with Isaacs and Posey]. But for seven months straight, I had breakfast, lunch, or dinner with them, every single day. We would hang out in each other’s rooms, in the pool, out in the ocean. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t see them or hang out with them. I’ll consider them friends for life. They’re going to be the flower girl and flower boy at my wedding.

MH: A defining feature of Saxon is that he’s very much trying to live in his father’s shadow. But what he doesn’t know is that his father’s entire life, the life that Saxon so aspires to, is crumbling around him.

PS: One of the themes throughout the show is: Who do you become when everything you stood for and everything about who you thought you were is taken away? That’s very relevant to Tim, but it’s also very relevant to Saxon. I enter the White Lotus with a very specific bravado, the most confident and sure-of-himself character—and I’m the most lost and perplexed and confused by the end.

MH: Your real dad, Arnold Schwarzenegger, came out to the premiere and posted in support of you on Instagram. What’s his feedback been so far?

PS: After the first episode, he was cracking up over the scene in the bedroom. He thought it was so funny and so absurd. And I know my mom [author and activist Maria Shriver] is caught up, and she’s loving it. She’s a huge fan of The White Lotus.

MH: We’re close to the end of the season. What can you tell us about what’s coming our way?

PS: It’s going to be an overtime, buzzer-beater type of situation. Just mayhem. Once we got to episode 5, everything started to tick up a notch. And it’ll keep ticking.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.