How the breakout star of The White Lotus kicks back in California
Words by TIM TEEMAN
Photography by DAVID ROEMER
Styling by AVO YERMAGYAN
Patrick Schwarzenegger observes his cup of coffee with a smile. “The barista who made this said, ‘You’re so nice, but your character is so mean.’ ” The reference is to The White Lotus, in which he plays Saxon, the arrogant, six-pack-endowed oldest child of the rich and strife-riven Ratliff family. With his debut in season three of the HBO drama, he has gotten used to people shouting one of Saxon’s most famous lines at him: “So what kind of porn do you like?”
Today, in a chichi New York hotel dressed in sweats, his tousled hair hidden under a baseball cap, the quietly spoken, very un-Saxon Schwarzenegger has just landed on the red-eye from Los Angeles for a week of TV appearances, including Good Morning America, The Drew Barrymore Show, and The Kelly Clarkson Show. The handsome 31-year-old actor — who lives in Santa Monica with his fiancée, the model Abby Champion — is on a promotional tour for the show. Playing Saxon could be a ticket to the big time for the son of movie star and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, the journalist, author, and niece of former President John F. Kennedy.
Each season of The White Lotus is set at an international outpost of the fictional luxury hotel chain. The dark comedy — the creation of Mike White, who writes, directs, and executive produces every episode — is a heady stew of outrageous twists, sex, murder, and partying from the entitled elites and scammers staying at the hotels and the long-suffering staff who serve them. The show became appointment viewing during the pandemic, with its debut season set in Hawaii. Season two was in Sicily, followed by season three in Thailand. Among an array of awards, The White Lotus has won 15 Emmys.
It’s fun to put yourself in uncomfortable positions because then you learn.
Patrick Schwarzenegger
In the current season, the Ratliffs are typical White Lotus guests: wealthy, full of secrets, and terrible at communicating — with life-changing tribulations threatening to engulf them. By the sixth episode, Saxon is contemplating the nature of his apparent sexual desire for his younger brother, Lochlan (played by Sam Nivola). His father, Tim (Jason Isaacs), is facing ruin and contemplating suicide. Mother Victoria (Parker Posey and her much-memed Southern accent) is mainlining the anxiety drug lorazepam, and daughter Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) is on a spiritual journey toward Buddhism.
Growing up in L.A., family life couldn’t have been more different. Schwarzenegger was inspired by watching his father working on movie sets, including The Terminator, Total Recall, and True Lies. “Being around fame has probably been beneficial,” Schwarzenegger says. “I don’t act so I can be famous. Is it cool when someone comes up to you says, ‘I love your work and character’? Yes, it feels great. But I don’t mind if that doesn’t happen. What it does do is open doors for filmmakers, writers, and directors hopefully considering me for future projects.”
His acting career began at age 10 in the film The Benchwarmers. After earning a bachelor’s degree from the USC Marshall School of Business, he won roles in movies (including Midnight Sun in 2018, his first leading role, opposite Bella Thorne) and TV series (including The Staircase). Before The White Lotus he played Luke Riordan/Golden Boy, the protagonist with superpowers in Gen V.
“I don’t ask my dad for any acting advice. He’s a movie star,” he says of his father. “It’s not that I don’t want to become that one day, but I want to focus on trying to get my feet wet in acting roles, then one day come to do those types of movies. We have two different routes of how to go about it. He’s all about, ‘You should be number one on the call sheet, the biggest name, your name should be on the poster. Go big.’ I’m of the opposite mindset. By going small and continually growing with my roles, I’m trying to build my résumé.”
As Saxon Ratliff, his pivotal scene with Lochlan (and all the confused feelings) left Saxon seemingly shaken and broken, and Schwarzenegger’s performance was one of the season’s most memorable. “Saxon entered the show with all this confidence,” Schwarzenegger says. “Now he finds himself the most lost and confused of everyone.”
The challenging storyline never gave Schwarzenegger pause for thought. “I’m playing a character. When you join The White Lotus, you know Mike is going to push boundaries. That’s why he’s a genius. As an actor, playing the most uncomfortable scenes is the most fun because they are the biggest challenge. I’m not saying that scene was the most fun, but it’s fun to push yourself and put yourself in uncomfortable positions because then you learn.”
It wasn’t difficult filming intimate scenes with Nivola because by then the pair had been filming together for a couple of months, Schwarzenegger says. “Our whole on-screen family — Sam, me, Jason, Parker, and Sarah Catherine — worked together, hung out together, had meals, built a family dynamic,” he says. “I became super close with all of them and continue to be really close with them today.”
A well-circulated Instagram video shows the moment Schwarzenegger, surrounded by his overjoyed family, learned he got the part. His mom and sisters are huge fans of the show.
“I have no idea how they’ll react,” he says, one week before the spiciest episodes aired. “Of course I’m nervous. I’m nervous about how everyone will react. Anytime you’re putting yourself out there in a vulnerable way, people can be judgmental. But I trust Mike’s vision in pushing the story forward.”
A fitness enthusiast, Schwarzenegger is sanguine about his body being on thirst-streaked display. “If it’s serving the character, I’m all for it,” he says. Although he did, like Saxon, attend a full-moon party, there wasn’t much off-set wildness (“We were probably the tamest cast of the three seasons”).
Schwarzenegger was most moved by the show’s theme of exploring “what you are if everything you thought defined you was taken away. That happens to Saxon and his dad.” Asked if he had learned anything about himself, the actor laughed. “Not to be like Saxon, and what my own core values are: family, faith, fiancée, and friends. The four Fs.”
Schwarzenegger is happiest when discussing those four Fs, emphasizing how much he cherishes spending time with family, how everybody lives near one another, the joy in walking his sister Katherine’s kids home from school (Schwarzenegger has two older sisters — Katherine, who is married to Chris Pratt, and Christina — a younger brother, Christopher, and a younger paternal half-brother, Joseph Baena).
All roads — and there are many, given his work schedule — lead back to California. Every time he’s away from home, he says, he’s reminded how much he loves the state. “It’s where I grew up, where family is. California has its flaws, like anywhere, but when I get home and it’s January, it’s 70 degrees, sunny,” he says. “We can go for a hike, stroll on the beach, ski, mountain bike.”
He loves the Hollywood Hills. He’s always finding “great coffee shops,” but for burgers he opts for In-N-Out, Father’s Office, and R+D Kitchen; and for ice cream, McConnell’s, Rori’s, and the Bigg Chill. He and Champion sometimes escape L.A. for the golden sands and rolling vineyards of Montecito and Santa Barbara.
My core values are family, faith, fiancée, and friends. The four Fs.
Patrick Schwarzenegger
Marriage is on his mind. He and Champion got engaged in December 2023 after seven and a half years together, and this month they posed together in a new Skims bridal campaign with Patrick in the buff. They plan to marry this summer, he says. “There’s no rush, but I can’t wait.” Would he like to have kids? “Oh, yes, I’d have children tomorrow if I could. But it’s hard for Abby and her work.” Champion, who hails from Birmingham, Alabama, has modeled all over the world for brands including Prada, Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, Celine, and Chanel. “She’s at the height of her career, and I absolutely support her in whatever she wants to do,” Schwarzenegger says.
Visiting his father on film sets as a child — he particularly recalls watching him playing Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin — introduced Schwarzenegger to that world. “Every part of it was fun: the theme parks, seeing my dad transform himself. My parents would film me pretending to be a news reporter, or in my Spider-Man cape,” he says. “It’s fun to become someone else. Actors get to do that every day.”
Schwarzenegger says his parents remain “massively influential in my life — my dad on the work ethic side, and my mom on finding ways to be a public servant, giving back, and helping others. They were from very opposite backgrounds, but I think the different values they had meshed and worked well — for a while, anyway. That helped me understand the value of seeing things from different perspectives.”
His parents’ separation in 2011 (the divorce was finalized in 2021) was “difficult” for Schwarzenegger. “I don’t think there was any way that it wouldn’t have been. Anytime there is massive change, it’s difficult. It was not easy. But they did a great job of putting their differences aside for family celebrations like Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Schwarzenegger remains close to both, particularly his mom. Typically they see each other four or five days a week. “Besides my fiancée, she is the person I see most,” he says. During the pandemic, they even started a business together, creating a protein bar, Mosh, designed to aid brain health, with a percentage of sales supporting Alzheimer’s research.
Schwarzenegger “hopes and prays” L.A. recovers from the 14 regional fires in January that killed at least 29 people, forced more than 200,000 people to evacuate, and destroyed over 18,000 homes and structures. “It’s been awful,” he says. “All the family was evacuated from our homes, but our properties were all OK. Other people who were affected stayed at our place, and it was great to be able to help them.”
Even before the fires, film and TV production was at an all-time low in California, Schwarzenegger notes. “I hope they fix that with tax benefits and ways to help all those working in the film industry,” he says. One week after the interview, Governor Gavin Newsom awarded tax credits to a record 51 films as part of the state’s film and TV tax incentive program, employing 6,500 cast and crew and paying nearly $347 million in wages.
I’d have children tomorrow if I could, but Abby is at the height of her career. I support her.
Patrick Schwarzenegger
Does Schwarzenegger have political ambitions? “Yes, for sure down the road. I love it. I feel very fortunate and blessed to be in my position and feel it’s my calling to try and help others.” As governor, mayor, senator, or a member of Congress? “I’ve no idea. Generally, I want to find ways to help and give back.”
Having been born into both Hollywood and political royalty, inevitably charges of being a “nepo baby” swirl around Schwarzenegger, but there were other advantages beyond access. “I try to work hard and use the values instilled in me to treat everyone with respect,” Schwarzenegger says. “I want to be a better actor and person and continually learn and grow.”
Indeed, Schwarzenegger loves learning from other actors. “On White Lotus I asked Jason, ‘If you have pointers, I’m all ears.’ He gave me notes. On the first day, Walton Goggins [who plays Rick] said, ‘You should never fucking question that you’re the right person for this character. You were chosen for a reason. You know who this character is better than anyone else.’ ” For Schwarzenegger, “playing opposite someone better than you, like Colin Firth, elevates your work. They raise your game.”
After the sun sets on his White Lotus duties, Schwarzenegger has a movie booked (but he cannot reveal more). “I would do Broadway in a minute,” he says, professing his love of the stage, having attended theater school for many years. He would love to portray Patrick Bateman in Luca Guadagnino’s remake of American Psycho, a role Austin Butler is reportedly poised to play. “The comment I get most about The White Lotus is that Saxon gives off Patrick Bateman vibes. That would be a dream come true. Luca does great young male roles. I love his other films, like Queer, Challengers, and Call Me by Your Name.”
So is Schwarzenegger happy with where Saxon ends up?
“I struggled with this,” he says. “I was looking for a big change for Saxon and played a scene near the end like that. Afterward, Mike asked, ‘Why are you doing that? This show takes place over a week. Saxon doesn’t need to fully change.… In my show, some characters change fully, some not at all, some leave more fucked up than at the beginning. That’s life. Not everyone has an epiphany or a moment of change.’ ”
“I thought that was really beautiful and true,” Schwarzenegger says. “Instead of focusing on what I wanted for Saxon, or what I wanted the audience to see, remaining true to the character meant acknowledging maybe he doesn’t change, or leaving the question open as to whether he does.”
Grooming by JAMIE TAYLOR at A-Frame Agency.
Shot on location at THE CORAZZA HOUSE.
Feature image: DIOR tank, price upon request, pants, $1,550, jacket, $2,900, and socks, price upon request. CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN shoes, $895. JAEGER-LECOULTRE watch, $22,700.
This story originally appeared in the Men’s Spring 2025 edition of C Magazine.
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