Jason Isaacs Claims He Did not Base ‘White Lotus’ Character on ‘Southern Appeal’

Jason Isaacs is clarifying the origins of his White Lotus character’s accent.

In a latest interview on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Reside radio present, the actor, 61, revealed that, opposite to what his costars have stated, he didn’t base Timothy Ratliff on somebody from Bravo’s Southern Appeal.

Isaacs defined that his character is from a distinct a part of South Carolina that has a wholly completely different intonation of their accent than these from Charleston, the place the truth collection is filmed.

“I didn’t watch or base something on anyone from Southern Appeal,” he instructed Cohen, who govt produces the Bravo present. “That is the tip of that dialog — sorry.”

In February, Sam Nivola, who performs Lochlan Ratliff, instructed PEOPLE that White Lotus creator Mike White recommended the Ratliff household actors examine Southern Appeal earlier than filming started, and Isaacs confirmed this was true.

“Firstly, he stated, ‘This is a man you may need to take into consideration,'” he famous of Thomas Ravenel. “And I came upon immediately, when studying the script, that I used to be from Durham, and I spoke to the world’s finest dialect coach, Liz Himelstein, and he or she went, ‘These accents are not any use to you.'”

As an alternative of Southern Appeal, Isaacs stated he regarded to politicians for his accent inspiration, and he realized so much about how folks in Durham discuss.

“They’ve two vowel sounds,” he stated, which hint again to the colonial days. “Not everybody in Durham, not younger folks, however notably Tim, who needs to sound like his grandfather, and who lives within the city the place there are statues to his kinfolk, the place he is obtained a wing of the college named after him.”

“There are two vowel sounds,” he continued. “One is the quick R sound and the opposite is the tip of the tongue O sound. And that’s fairly distinctive to Durham.”

Cameran Eubanks, who starred within the early seasons of Southern Appeal, shared the same sentiment on her Instagram Tales when The White Lotus first premiered.

“Lots of yall are echoing what I assumed as quickly as I heard the dad converse. ‘Rattling, he seems like Thomas Ravenel!’” she wrote. “That dialect is NOT North Carolina. It’s outdated Charleston.”

She later defined her data of Southern accents: “Numerous messages asking what the distinction is between a Charleston accent and the Previous Charleston accent.”

“Properly, there actually isn’t any such factor as present Charleston dialect as a result of now extra Northerners dwell right here than Southerners 🤣BUT the outdated Charleston English remains to be clinging on to some,” she continued. “I’ll put the Wikipedia definition on the subsequent web page.”

“Additionally, enjoyable fact- Thomas was the ONLY unique forged member who was born and bred in Charleson,” Eubanks added. “I’m from the upstate of South Carolina and our dialect is much more twangy and fewer refined 😜”

She adopted up her posts with particular tips of what makes a real Charleston accent, akin to “R-dropping” and including an “intrusive y into the ar sound.”

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The White Lotus season 3 will be streamed on Max and Southern Appeal will be streamed on Peacock.