The White Lotus star Murray Bartlett, who's up and down in the Emmys race, and more in EW's The Awardist

The White Lotus supporting superstar Murray Bartlett

Murray Bartlett hit the jackpot with his role in HBO's The White Lotus, a searing satire of white privilege and entitlement from creator Mike White. As resort manager Armond, Bartlett was at once in control and falling apart, a man struggling to maintain his sobriety in the midst of bullying over a mistake he couldn't bring himself to admit. What came next made Armond one of the year's most talked about characters...and Bartlett a breakout star. By Gerrad Hall

Cover illustration by Jaya Nicely

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Since the show debuted last summer, you have been to several events and other awards shows, made the talk show rounds — what has it been like for you navigating everything that comes with promoting a show like this and the FYC campaign of it all?

MURRAY BARTLETT: It's interesting. It's so different from the actual work that we do as actors... I've found it to be a really fun adventure. It can be a strange thing I think — I was reflecting back on it and thinking as a younger actor, I feel like some of it might have felt a little bit overwhelming. It's a really wonderful and singular experience to do a job that seems to resonate with a bunch of people and then there's attention on you in a different way. I'm at an age where I'm like, great, bring it on.

Going to the award shows and doing that other sort of part of the business of doing publicity and all that kind of stuff, I have really sort of leaned into. I've got to meet some of my heroes, people who I really admire, so that's been a lovely aspect of it. And when you go into awards shows and you're included in that room, that's a beautiful thing.

You mentioned getting to meet some heroes — who is the "pinch me, I can't believe I met and talked to this person" moment?

One person who I've just admired and loved for many, many years is Melanie Lynskey. I was really shy to meet her but I just think that she's an extraordinary actor and human. So that was super thrilling for me.

I know you hadn't read all of the White Lotus scripts before you went to Hawaii to start shooting. Once you found out what happens in the finale, did you have a "hold on a second" moment or did you find all of that to be exciting?

This role is just... It's dreamy. It's such a rollercoaster this character goes on and it was certainly unexpected. But I can't say there wasn't moments of fear — there always is when you get a role and especially an amazing role like this where you're like, "Oh my God, I better not stuff this up." [Laughs] Because it was so beautifully written. I didn't have any hesitation whatsoever. [I had] a moment of, like, "Oh God, this is awesome! I hope I can do justice to it!" And then the rest was pretty thrilling.

You submitted episode 4 for final voting. What is it in "Recentering" that you think exemplifies the best of Murray Bartlett in The White Lotus?

In the end of episode 3, Armond has fallen off the wagon for the first time fully. He wakes up in his car the next morning and he's trying to kind of pull it back together. So he's already starting to slip over the edge, hasn't completely fallen yet, and then he's scrambling to pull it back together. By the end of that episode, he's failed. So, I like that you get an arc in that episode of seeing him having lost his s--- and then really trying to reel it in — all the things [are] still coming at him and then by the end of that episode he just can't deal.

For the party scene with Lukas Gage, where Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) and Shane (Jake Lacy) walk in on Armond performing analingus on Lukas' character, what was in the script versus what ended up on screen?

It was not specific what happened. [Creator Mike White] wanted to make sure that we weren't doing anything that we felt uncomfortable with. Lukas and I discussed the options and we decided that would be probably one of the most shocking things for those two people walking in on to see — it would be super unexpected. So we went to Mike and said, "How about we do this?" And he looked with this sort of glee and shock on his face and said, "Can we do that?" And then we did. So we didn't shoot anything else.

Was the mustache written into the character or was that a Murray choice?

That was a Murray thing. I usually just sort of let everything go when I'm not in a job so that then I've got options when I'm doing an audition or whatever, and the mustache felt right for this character for some reason. There wasn't really any discussion about it. I think at some point they probably said, "Don't shave it off," but that was it. Sometimes if I'm auditioning and I've got a beard or a mustache, whatever, and it doesn't feel right, I'll get rid of it but this felt like it fit.

Heat Index | Contender or Pretender?

Who's up and who's down in the 2022 Emmys race? We take a look at some of the big categories. By Gerrad Hall