He’s Hollywood’s former muscle-bound action hero turned pop culture icon, but Arnold Schwarzenegger has used a decidedly childlike word to describe his son Patrick’s full-frontal nude scene on The White Lotus Season 3.
In a recent episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, the 77-year-old legend sat down with his 31-year-old son for a wide-ranging interview.
Topics ranged from nepotism and Schwarzenegger’s own blockbuster legacy to Patrick’s rising career and, of course, the infamous nude scene in The White Lotus that caught everyone’s attention.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Schwarzenegger chuckled when talking about watching the hit drama when his son’s “weenie” unexpectedly made an appearance on screen.
“I said to myself, ‘I’m watching your show, and I’m watching your butt sticking out there.’ And all of a sudden, I see the weenie. What is going on here? This is crazy.”
Cue a collective cringe (and some laughter) from fans. While some loved the Terminator star’s awkward-dad reaction, others took to social media to slam it.
One user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, “Absolutely weird and inappropriate. This should not even have been talked about privately, let alone on a public platform.” Another said, “This whole family is weird, tbh.” While another added: “This is just plain creepy.”
The nude scene in question involves Patrick’s character Saxon Ratliff in The White Lotus, who’s known for his complicated relationships and, well, some eye-catching screen time.
It’s a far cry from the traditional Schwarzenegger action hero image but shows Patrick carving out his own space in Hollywood.
However, Schwarzenegger himself isn’t exactly shy about nudity - his own early career included some daring roles where he wasn’t exactly covered up and he was a former oiled-up body builder who famously rocked barely-there underwear during competitions.
Patrick’s mother, Maria Shriver, even joked about the naked scene in a separate interview, laughing off fans’ reactions: “People are like, ‘Oh my God, you saw!’ and I’m like, ‘I gave birth to him. I’ve seen him naked since he was a baby.’”
Still, Patrick admitted he was a bit surprised by the extent of his own nudity on the show. In a Sunday Times chat, he confessed, “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.”
