Fans Of HBO's White Lotus Kept Telling This Star They Hated Him (As A Compliment)

Patrick Schwarzenegger was excellent as Saxon, the eldest boy of the wealthy Ratliff family, in season 3 of "The White Lotus." He was so good, in fact, that in real life, he received the highest praise from strangers an actor can get: They kept telling him they hated him. 

"The first weeks, people came up to me and told me how much they hated me," Schwarzenegger explained in a June 2025 interview, alongside his father Arnold Schwarzenegger. "The biggest learning experience is how much people associate you with your character.'"

Arnold admitted that he too would hear people hate on his son's character during those first few weeks of the season: 

"Now everyone is coming up to me in the gym and saying, 'Your son is fantastic.' Someone else comes up to me and says, 'I hated your son in the series.' ... Hated him? What kind of a compliment is that? They said, 'He was fantastic, but the character he played was so believable.'"

Saxon was indeed believable as the douchey finance bro who kept pushing his younger brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) to embrace his toxic way of life. In the first few episodes, he felt like the villain of the family, someone who would escalate the season into darker territory. There were even theories that he was the one responsible for the shooting we saw in the season's cold open. He was somewhat similar to Albie in season 2; that was a character everyone expected to go in a dark direction, but showrunner Mike White refused to give him such straightforward material. 

Although everyone hated Saxon in the beginning, Schwarzenegger recalled how the tide shifted over the course of the eight-week season. "By the end of it, they came up to me saying how much they felt bad for me," he said. "It was a roller coaster."

How did fans do such a 180 on him? It mainly came down to that pivotal midpoint episode "Full-Moon Party." That's where Lochlan decides to, for lack of a better term, jerk Saxon off to completion. It's a subversion of expectations in the funniest (and grossest) way possible; Saxon wanted his brother to come out of his shell sexually, but not like this. 

Saxon is horrified by what went down, and spends the rest of the season on a surprising, introspective journey. The show introduces us to a whole new side of Saxon in these final episodes, and it's a side that fan-favorite character Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) started to notice, too. There's a particularly haunting moment in the finale where Chelsea hugs her returning boyfriend Rick while Saxon watches on, heartbroken. It's clear that he isn't into Chelsea for the sleazy chauvinist reasons he mentioned in the earlier episodes; by this point, he's formed a genuine connection with her, and he's realizing in this moment that no one's ever loved him to the extent that Chelsea loves Rick. 

Making Saxon even more sympathetic by the finale is the financial catastrophe looming over him thanks to his father. We know Saxon's life of luxury is about to come crashing down the second he gets his phone back, adding another layer of tragedy to a character who's raked in plenty of Ls on his own. 

In a Variety interview from April this year, Patrick Schwarzenegger talked about how he'd wanted Saxon to change even more over the course of the season, but Mike White disagreed:

"I actually played a version of that scene where it's full come-to-Jesus, where Saxon is just so sweet to the girls. Mike came up and said, no, he didn't want me to play it like that. He didn't want some huge change for Saxon yet — just a small moment and to hold on my face as I watch her go off into the distance."

In the end, Saxon doesn't change that much throughout the season. It's more that the audience's perspective on him has changed as we've gotten to know him better. By the time he and his family are sailing back home in those closing minutes, Saxon is still a douchey finance guy. The difference is that now we've seen what makes him tick, and we know there's potential for him to grow beyond that type of person. 

That's part of what makes "The White Lotus" such a fascinating show. As wild as it gets, the main characters rarely do a full 180 as we might hope and instead tend to realistically settle back into their old selves by the trip's end. For instance, Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) in season 1 almost embraced the realization that she needed to leave her awful husband, but in the end she changed her mind and returned to the road more traveled. 

The only character to enjoy a total metamorphosis is season 1's Quinn, who went from a phone-obsessed loser to someone who'd seemingly fully embraced the culture and nature surrounding the resort. We would've loved if Saxon had changed as much as Quinn had, but we'll have to settle for the baby steps he made with Chelsea instead. Saxon's arc wasn't transformative, but it was still a lot more thoughtful and sweet than anyone could've predicted.