Parker Posey on ‘White Lotus’ Finale, Victoria’s Accent & Viral Fame

Parker Posey may be the only person in America not watching “The White Lotus” right now. Which isn’t to say that the star of season three doesn’t plan to watch it — she’s saving that for after the season finale, airing Sunday — but she’s relishing having a bird’s-eye view of how the series has taken hold of pop culture. And yes, that includes watching the many memes and clips that her character, Victoria Ratliff, has spawned.

“I mean, I look at things that people send me, which is not a lot; mainly it’s funny videos of ‘tsunami’ and ‘Buddhism’ on the ‘Today Show,’ and what people are making online — notice how I say online, I’m not a tech person — but the silliness and the fun and the creativity around the show has been so much fun to be a part of,” Posey says. “It’s a show that is a phenomenon, and the people who were involved in the first two seasons know the reach that the show has. So they were like ‘get prepared.’ And so I think I was prepared, but now people are coming up to me and just kind of looking at me. And then I go, ‘You must be watching “White Lotus” right now.’” 

The hit HBO series from creator Mike White is a career hallmark for the 56-year-old, who has made a career of playing quirky characters in indies. Posey has long been idolized for her roles in films like “Party Girl,” “Best in Show” and “Waiting for Guffman,” but “The White Lotus” is a whole new beast. More than 5 million viewers are expected to tune in for Sunday’s finale, capping off what has been the hugely popular series’ most-watched season yet. Suddenly, Posey is going viral due to her morning TV show appearances and sitting next to Chappell Roan at Milan Fashion Week. 

“She was like, ‘I’ve never done this before.’ And I said, ‘Me neither,’” Posey says of taking in the Valentino show last month next to Roan. “Which is hard to believe, but it’s so different now than it was 25 years ago. I just didn’t do it. I was just busy doing other stuff. But I love it now.”

Since the third season premiered back in February, it’s all anyone wants to talk to Posey about — much to her delight. 

“It’s so interesting what a small world it really is. And I think being a famous person, there’s something that’s kind of small town about it,” she says, mentioning an interaction she had with a Chilean fan who ended up giving her tips for her upcoming trip to Easter Island while they discussed plot points.

To some, the third season has moved at a slower pace than the first two, a comment that has been given both as a compliment and a critique. 

“I’m like, well, just you wait,” Posey teases, before adding that perhaps we’ve gotten too used to instant gratification from movies and television. 

“It’s been like 20 years of a formula based on plot and surprise and shock and horror and these things that people expect,” Posey says. “So I think it’s just so interesting and fun as an outsider, because I know what happens in the show, to witness the audience kind of go like, ‘Oh, now I’m leaning in.’”

The drama of “The White Lotus,” and her character Victoria specifically, reminds her of nighttime soaps like “Dallas” and “Dynasty” from the 1980s, which inspired her crafting of the role of Victoria. 

“I love those characters and those plot twists and the style and the slow burn of those [shows]. It was the beginning of middle-aged women having their shot at characters of women in power, and they were on fire,” Posey says. 

“I think she is just really smart and that’s what makes her characters so adored and iconic,” says Sam Nivola, who portrays Posey’s youngest son, Lochlan. “She does the majority of her work before we get to set, in that she is big on preparation, and I think that really pays dividends because she has a really thorough backstory for every character she plays and as a result can improvise her ass off. And her intelligence just means that her preparation work is hilarious and deep no matter what.”

“My favorite scene to film with Parker was one I had been dreading,” says Sarah Catherine Hook, the Piper of “Piper, noooooo” fame. “As you’ve all seen, in the opening of episode six, she and I are screaming our faces off. I told her how nervous I was because I’ve never thought I was very good at those types of scenes. She looked at me and said, ‘We just have to have fun, Sarah Catherine!’ — and that’s exactly what we did. We laughed our way through the entire sequence, being crazy, screaming queens. I’ll never forget it.”

Victoria, the matriarch of the Ratliff family with a penchant for lorazepam, could easily come across as judgmental, Posey says — hence the need to make her so funny. 

“If she hadn’t been funny, she could come across as really terrible,” Posey adds.

From episode one, Victoria’s accent has practically been its own character, with one clippable one liner after the next. Posey’s demonstration of Victoria’s accent on “The Today Show” has been in the pop culture lexicon ever since airing. Of course, that’s why Posey is so good in the role. 

“I come from funny people. There’s not a lot of comedies that get produced. There’s not a lot of rom-coms. There’s not a lot of all of that. And my dad was really funny — there is lots of funny in my family,” Posey says. “You leave your home country for almost seven months, and I just thought a lot about honoring that, the funny in my family.”

“Of course she’s a legend from all of her work prior to this. But to me — she’s very much original and unique and she doesn’t hide that. Both on and off the screen,” Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays her son Saxon on the show, says. “I think that’s why her press is so funny and goes viral. You can ask her about her scenes and she’ll go off on a hilarious tangent about how a bird stole her eggs off her breakfast and 20 seconds later weave in her answer like nothing else happened.”  

Connections have been drawn between her character and Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya, who died at the end of season two, as well as the revitalization of both women’s careers due to the show. Posey says she “of course” sees a connection with Coolidge, who she worked with in “Best in Show,” and she’s hopeful about what her post “White Lotus” career will look like. 

“When TV came about, there was this channel called ‘Playhouse 90,’ and they had playwrights writing vignettes for television. And it would be so cool to get New York vibrant again in storytelling. Even if it’s something on YouTube — there’s so much going on right now that’s shifting and changing in our culture and the way people watch,” Posey says. “I know you probably think I get all these scripts and stuff, but it’s not — I’m a middle-aged woman. I’m so fortunate. You would think it was otherwise, that I’d be able to do that. But it’s what the culture can hold. And it seems to really love horror. And don’t get me wrong, I love to scream. But I’m kind of like, where are the other rooms that we’ve forgotten about? Where’s the lightness? Where’s the light fare?”

While “The White Lotus” is far from light — each season begins with a murder, after all — it’s an indulgent escape that Posey feels is just right for the moment we’re in.

“It’s been fun to give people a real distraction and to really just thoroughly entertain them. The glee of it. Because TV is so intimate, it’s in people’s homes,” Posey says. “With the Chris Guest movies [‘Guffman,’ ‘Best in Show’], my parents would quote lines from that. It gives people so much joy to play act, and to have ‘The White Lotus’ of it all within their lives, at this time right now — no one else is sending up the class of people and commenting on this and has been able to do it with such glee. And that has magic to it,” she continues, referencing the show’s singular impact on the zeitgeist. “It’s hard to get in and for something to catch that little flicker.”