Actress Emily Mortimer has given her verdict on son Sam Nivola’s sex scene in The White Lotus.
Nivola, 21, starred as Lochlan Ratliff, the youngest child of a lorazepam addict and her bankrupt husband, in the recent third series of the Emmy award-winning destination thriller.
In one of the most memorable scenes, he could be seen partaking in a drug-fuelled threesome in Thailand with the girlfriend of a criminal kingpin and his charactr’s own brother (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son Patrick).
Drawn on what she made of it all, Mortimer - who is married to fellow actor Alessandro Nivola - admitted it was “a bit bizarre”, but that she had “been warned” ahead of viewing.
She told The Times: “It’s so crazy, all of it. It wasn’t particularly crazier than having my boy go off to Thailand for so long. Of course it was a bit bizarre, but being married to an actor, we’ve all had to watch each other do strange things. And I had been warned — although Sam said that the worst bit was the first ten minutes, but they kept flashing back. So I’d relaxed and then it wasn’t true at all.”
Nivola’s star is certainly on the rise, with other recent credits including starring in an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise and Netflix’s glossy whodunnit The Perfect Couple with Nicole Kidman.
Asked about how her offspring is finding his new-found fame, she Mortimer told the publication: “He just sort of owns it, which isn’t thanks to either of us. I’m biased because I’m his mum, but he doesn’t need any guidance.”
As for herself, she will next be seen playing former Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick in Suspect, Disney+’s new drama based on the wrongful killing of Brazillian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was mistaken for a terrorist.
Told from multiple perspectives of those involved, it examines how memory - both accurate and distorted - can be turned into fact and shape our understanding of the truth.
The streamer will release all four episodes at once on Wednesday, April 30.
Edison Alcaide, Conleth Hill, Max Beesley, Laura Aikman and Russell Tovey also star.
