“It’s been insane,” says Nicholas Duvernay, a sentiment likely shared with the rest of his “White Lotus” castmates. After appearing in the season’s opening scene, Duvernay had a hiatus until later in the season, once his character Zion reappears.
Duvernay, best known for his role in the Netflix movie “Purple Hearts,” was off to Thailand for six months only a matter of weeks after landing the role of Zion, the son of fan favorite Belinda.
The 25-year-old was admittedly a little late to the world of “The White Lotus” and started watching once Season Two was already out — meaning he could binge each.
“This is actually my first season having to wait for episodes and be like, OK, ‘I gotta wait until Sunday,’” he says.
He’d just recommended the show to his family when he got the audition for Zion.
“They were like, ‘the show that you just told us about — you’re auditioning for it?’” he recalls.
His audition scene was a conversation between Zion and Belinda at breakfast, so Duvernay made himself a pancake at home to help build the scene around him during his taping.
“You don’t have many shows that have such a communicative fan base like this,” Duvernay says. “There’s such a big dialogue that’s happening with every single character. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
Natasha Rockwell and Nicholas Duvernay in “The White Lotus.”
Growing up, Duvernay would cry on command and act out little scenes to “get what I wanted,” he says.
“My parents were like, ‘we need to put this kid on TV.’”
He began acting training in Atlanta around the age of 13, falling in love with it in the process.
“I obviously watched Disney Channel and stuff [as a kid] and was like, ‘I want to act on TV so I could be friends with these guys.’ Then it evolved into what I love to do and what I hope to do for the rest of my life,” he says.
As he became more serious about acting, he realized that if he wanted to land more significant roles he needed to relocate to Los Angeles. That, and he didn’t want to cut his long hair.
“The Atlanta scene wasn’t really loving my look. I was still early in my career, so I’m sure there was some skill work to be done, obviously, but I had really long hair,” he says. “But I ended up shaving my head for ‘Purple Hearts’ to play a Marine anyway, so the hair was never to be seen again. I’m like, whatever happened was supposed to happen.”
He is waiting for “The White Lotus” dust to settle before committing to his next role, “trying to be very patient and make sure that we’re picking the right thing to come after this and to continue the momentum,” he says.
“I’ve been in L.A. for five years now, and I mean, we’re on ‘The White Lotus’ now, so I think it’s a good sign.”
