‘White Lotus’ star dishes on Piper’s virginity and deleted sex scenes
“The White Lotus” star Sarah Catherine Hook tells USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa why Piper’s sex scene was cut from the season finale.
NEW YORK – Sarah Catherine Hook, the actress who played Piper Ratliff on Season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” lived in fear for a year and a half. She knew how the season ended, but couldn’t say a word.
Hook, 29, is now free to speak her mind. She immediately addresses a rumor about how show creator Mike White allegedly prevented spoilers
“I knew Lachlan ultimately was not gonna die, even though watching him die for a second was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to see,” Cook says of co-star Sam Nivola. “It was a stunning sequence of a spiritual death. But no, I’m pretty sure there were not multiple endings.”
Fresh off Sunday’s much-talked-about finale and just two weeks shy of her 30th birthday, Cook stops by USA TODAY to dish on viral catchphrases, deleted scenes and her character’s “sobering” finale moment.
Hook reveals the origins of ‘Piper, no!’
Hook says that White and Parker Posey, who played her mom Victoria, created the infamous, “Piper, no!” phrase between takes on set.
“I’ve been so looking forward to talking about this,” she says, before explaining: “While we were there on set, (Posey) was ‘Piper, no’-ing me the entire time. Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) would say a dirty joke, and (Posey would) be like, ‘Ha ha Saxon, oh my God.’ And then she would just look at me out of nowhere. I’m like, ‘What?’ And she’s like, ‘Piper.’ And then Mike would come over and he would just look at me and be like, ‘Piper, no.’
“You guys are all new to ‘Piper, no.’ But this has been with me from the beginning.”
Hook notes that the phrase reveals an interesting dynamic among Victoria and Piper. “Saxon is being so obnoxious, yet he’s getting all of this love,” she says, “whereas Piper is literally just existing and it’s that trope of disciplining her daughter. Like, ‘Sit still, look pretty. Don’t have any opinions. Just be pretty.’ I think it’s great.”
Hook ‘blacked out’ filming spiel about being spoiled
Like many shows, “The White Lotus” was filmed out of sequence. In a pivotal scene in the season finale, Piper comes to the realization that her plan to stay at a monastery for a year and study Buddhism isn’t going to work.
“I know I’m not supposed to be attached to this kind of stuff,” Piper says after listing her gripes with the monastery, including the lack of air conditioning or organic food. “But I think I am.”
It’s a watershed moment for the character (and just as Victoria predicted when she told her daughter to sleep there for the night): Piper is self-aware of her spoiled upbringing but is unwilling to change. For Hook, the scene proved challenging beyond the script.
“It was one of my first few scenes that I filmed,” she says. “I hadn’t even really met the (character) yet. “It was one of the most stressful, anxiety induced days of my life because I was like, ‘This is her biggest moment in the show.’ And I’m still figuring out who she is.
“I think I blacked out that day,” she continues with a laugh. “I was so nervous about the outcome of (the scene) and I feel very proud of it, so thank God.”
Hook addresses Piper losing her virginity
White revealed after the finale that he originally planned for Piper to lose her virginity at the resort to Belinda’s son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay). But the scenes were cut from the episode for storyline and timing reasons. While Hook says she was “gutted” that the moment didn’t make the finale, she agrees with White’s reasoning.
“(White) made the best decision by not putting (the sex scenes) in because it would’ve been a rom-com,” Hook says. “It was her rom-com moment.”
Hook estimates that in all, about seven scenes were cut. “I really hope I get to see the short film of it one day, because they were really funny scenes,” she says. “Piper needs to have her party girl era. It’s time to go for her.”
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