White Lotus’ Gaitok Recalls Walton Goggins Apologizing to Him After Method Acting on Set (Exclusive)

While celebrating Mike White’s series collaboration with Thai fashion brand Jim Thompson in Beverly Hills, star Tayme Thapthimthong opened up exclusively to TooFab about filming the moment [spoiler alert!] his character shoots and kills Goggin’s character Rick in the Season 3 finale.

“He was very method,” Thapthimthong told TooFab of his co-stars acting style. “So that scene, it took three days to film that whole sequence. And for that whole three days, Walton was like that, what you saw in the scene. Just really in it..

Thapthimthong recalled trying to say hello to Goggins before the shoot, however, he wasn’t met with the same enthusiasm.

“When I saw him in the morning, when we did the blocking at like 4:30AM and he walked towards me, I was like, ‘Hey Walton,’ and he’s like, ‘Shh.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ And Aimee Lou [Wood] came up to me and said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. This is just how he prepares,'” he explained.

Once the day was done and the cameras stopped rolling, Thapthimthong recalled Goggins apologizing.

“He’s so sweet. At the end of the day, when Mike wraps, he’ll come up to me. He’s like, ‘Oh, hey, man. Sorry I didn’t say hi this morning. I was just kind of in character,'” Thapthimthong said, before thanking the The Hateful Eight star, adding ‘”I learned a lot from you.”

During filming of the finale, Thapthimthong recalled the shooting scene taking three days to film and learning a lot from Goggins in the process.

“The way I prepared for that is I breathed really heavily and I almost hyperventilated on myself and it really helped. I’ve never had acting lessons before, so I’m just kind of drawing from past experiences and things that I learned on the spot and things that I learned from watching Walton Goggins prepare for his scene,” he continued.

Goggins himself has also spoken out about his process on set, recalling a moment where an unnamed costar tried to talk to him while in character.

“Someone I worked with on The White Lotus didn’t fully understand my process,” Goggins told The Guardian. 

“My character — Rick Hatchett — he’s isolated. So during filming, I was isolated. I liked mirroring that, but it was emotionally difficult. Then, a few months into The White Lotus, Fallout premiered and started to take off. One day, this actor I was working with — nice guy, good actor — came up to me and said, ‘You’re brilliant in Fallout. Please tell me you had a good time making that.'”

Goggins said he “just stared at” the actor.

“Because he didn’t get it. I don’t care how good you are — if you don’t understand that there’s a world beyond the script, if you don’t give yourself over to it, then you’re missing something profound in this work. This is the drug. I said, ‘No. I play a guy who’s lived for 200 years and seen the worst of humanity. Every day was f–king horrible.’ He just stared back at me like: ‘OK, wow.'”

Along with Goggins, Thapthimthong also worked closely with BLACKPINK’s Lisa, who played his love interest in the series, Mook. The pair have continued their friendship, with Thapthimthong even going to Coachella to support the superstar.

“That was amazing. First time seeing her live too because I’m just used to seeing her as Mook. So it’s amazing to actually see her stage and doing what she does best,” he raved.

“All the way from the start, she was very kind and humble and we hung out a lot and got to know each other as friends. I can see this friendship going on for a while because we always check in every now and then just to see how each other are,” he added of their bond.

Thapthimthong — who also sings and dances — also recalled a night of karaoke with Lisa during filming.

“The karaoke party, when I sing, she would just be dancing at the back. I was like, ‘Do you want to sing?’ She’s like, ‘No, no, no, I’m just a dancer.’ She’s such a good hype man, or hype girl!”

Watch more of TooFab’s interview with Tayme Thapthimthong above, as he opens up about how surreal his journey with The White Lotus has been.