Walton Goggins dishes on close connection to his ‘White Lotus’ character

Walton Goggins, who plays Rick Hatchett in The White Lotus season 3, got candid about seeing himself in the character he was playing because of their similarities.

The 53-year-old actor shared that just like his character Rick, he too went to Thailand for a similar purpose years ago.

Although their circumstances were different, as Goggins went to the country after his wife died, and Rick went there to look for his father’s murderer, both were at the end, “looking for some resolution.”

Speaking about relating to Rick, Goggins told Vulture, “I was as lost as Rick is lost"

“I don’t think he was given the time to process it. He takes that information in, and as soon as it registers, he’s being shot at,” he added of his character.

Goggins opened up about his personal journey to Thailand, and shared, “I went to Thailand 18 years ago after a trauma in my life, looking for peace, looking for some resolution that was not so dissimilar from what Rick was looking for.”

“The circumstances were dramatically different. I was a year into a relationship with my now-wife, and I was as lost as Rick is lost. I had nothing for my partner. I understood, intimately, Rick’s frame of mind.”

When he read the script for the show, Goggins recalled thinking, “the universe brought this to me for a reason, because I understand him, and I love him, and I love people like him. I don’t think he’s alone in the world.”

Therefore, the Ant-Man actor added, “Rick Hatchett is not a fictional character to me. He’s a real person consumed by something that happened to him that he had no control over.”