On The White Lotus, actor Patrick Schwarzenegger gets rich quick

On the set of the third season of the hit dark comedy drama series The White Lotus, which shot for seven sticky months in luxury hotels in Bangkok and Koh Samui, Thailand, American writer-director Mike White had a repeated note for American actor Patrick Schwarzenegger.

- Alexis Soloski

NEW YORK — On the set of the third season of the hit dark comedy drama series The White Lotus, which shot for seven sticky months in luxury hotels in Bangkok and Koh Samui, Thailand, American writer-director Mike White had a repeated note for American actor Patrick Schwarzenegger.

“You’re not walking rich enough,” White would yell across the pool deck. “Patrick, be richer.”

Schwarzenegger, 31, recounted this — incorporating an impeccable White impression — on a bright morning at a coffee shop in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. In person, he was polite, earnest. “I’m thankful each and every day for the life I’ve been given,” he said as he spooned up yogurt and berries.

Schwarzenegger had come into the city to do a few days of press for The White Lotus 3, available on Max and his most high-profile project to date.

He plays Saxon, the eldest son of a wealthy North Carolina couple (Parker Posey and Jason Isaacs). A cocky finance bro, Saxon’s preferred pastimes include smoothies, pornography and observations about his siblings’ (played by Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola) sex lives.

The rising star often plays entitled young men. His character in Gen V (2023 to present), the college-set Amazon Prime Video show that is a companion to satirical superhero drama The Boys (2019 to present), is actually named Golden Boy.