The White Lotus: Leo Woodall says shock episode 5 sex scene left him ‘speechless’

Newest episode features a sex scene between two unexpected characters

Leo Woodall has spoken about The White Lotus’s latest sex scene that not only stunned audiences but left him “speechless”.

The British actor was a late addition to season two of the HBO comedy-drama, playing Essex hunk Jack, the new love interest of Portia (Haley Lu Richardson).

The character is introduced as the nephew of Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) new friend Quentin (Tom Hollander), an English millionaire she’s met in Sicily.

*Spoilers for episode five below*

During the fifth episode of the season, which aired on Sunday (27 November) and is titled “That’s Amore”, Tanya is wandering around Quentin’s palazzo when she accidentally walks in on Quentin and Jack having sex.

Discussing the moment he learnt about the scene, Woodall admitted that he was “speechless for a while”.

“I’m such a huge fan of Tom’s, and when I heard that he was going to be playing my uncle, I thought, ‘That is unreal,’” he told Variety. “And then when I found out that I was going to shag him as well – that was kind of surreal.

“Anything that [creator] Mike White does with this show is kind of perfect, so there were no reservations about it. It felt like an incredibly ‘wow’ moment.”

White further explained that this particular scene was an “echo” of the moment from season one when hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) was caught mid-sex with his employee Dillon (Lukas Gage).

Tom Hollander in ‘The White Lotus’ (HBO)

“There’s a pleasure to me as a guy who is gay-ish to make gay sex transgressive again,” White said. “Men are having sex and you have this Psycho music underneath. It just amuses me.”

The writer added: “I just think transgressive sex is sexier. I guess I’m old school. There’s this Gothic vibe of walking through a haunted hotel or haunted house and people are having sex behind closed doors.”

Speaking about the logistics of filming the scene, Hollander shared: “It’s more technical than anything else when you’re actually doing it.”

“You know, ‘Is this the right angle? Does this look right?’ But there was a mutually respectful energy between us, too. And on the set, the production was very tender around those moments. It certainly was around that one. We just wanted to do it right.”

Woodall said when it came to warning friends and family ahead of the episode, he only told his dad not to let his six-year-old brother watch it.

As for the others, he hasn’t “told a single soul about it, because I want to see their faces – or at least get their reactions without any prompt”.

The White Lotus airs Sundays on HBO Max in the US and Sky Atlantic and Now in the UK.