What role does Sam Rockwell play in The White Lotus? Season 3 cameo, explained

Last night's episode of HBO's The White Lotus Season 3 surprised fans as it featured a cameo by Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell.

Sam Rockwell played the role of Frank, Walton Goggins' Rick's old friend, who met with him in Bangkok. Frank met with Rick to hand him a leather bag with a gun for the latter's revenge on Jim Hollinger.

Rockwell, who is best known for his performances in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Green Mile and Jojo Rabbit, is also in a relationship with Leslie Bibb, who plays Kate in The White Lotus Season 3.

It looked like Rick and Frank were catching up after a long time as the former was taken aback by his friend's pledge to sobriety when he ordered a herbal tea. Their conversation and Frank's cameo in the latest episode is a commentary on this season's primal theme, desire vs spirituality.

More on Sam Rockwell's cameo in The White Lotus Season 3 in our story.

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Sam Rockwell's cameo in The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 5 was related to the over-arching theme of the episode

It is safe to say that The White Lotus Season 3's latest episode was the most exciting and wild to date, where the characters pushed all limits to enjoy a frenzy full moon night in Thailand.

The episode was an apt example of this season's theme, spirituality vs desire. While the Ratliff brothers and the three friends push all boundaries of desire and engage in a night of drugs, booze, and s*x, Piper reveals that she wants to explore Buddhism in Thailand with her parents.

Sam Rockwell's Frank is important to this over-arching theme because he is connected to both aspects. He first explains his hedonistic lifestyle to Rick, where he came to Thailand to satiate his lust for Thai women and engaged in casual s*x with Asian women every night. His night of partying and casual s*x with Thai women took a weird turn when he started having an identity crisis.

He decides to give up on this hedonistic lifestyle and practice Buddhism, stepping away from this "never-ending carousel of lust and suffering" and explore Buddhism. He notes:

''I realized I could f*ck a million women, I’d still never be satisfied."

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Sam Rockwell's Frank is a complicated mix of gender and identity in The White Lotus Season 3

While he claims that his old partying ways are over, he also shares a key detail about his past, which shocked Rick.

Frank realized that he was still not satiated after he had been with Thai women and instead, wanted to become them. He discovers cross-dressing, where he would put on a wig and s*xy lingerie.

In a key scene, Frank admits that:

“Maybe what I really want is to be one of these Asian girls. I’d think: I am her. And I’m watching me.”

While his desire to become a Thai woman complicates his notion of gender and identity, it also signifies the attraction of the West to the East. While Frank is initially drawn to these Asian women, like a typical West White male, his attraction becomes more complex with his cross-dressing.

Also Read: The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 6: Release date news, time, streaming details, and more

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