Sam Nivola on 'The White Lotus', British snacks & his favorite NYC spots | This or That - video Dailymotion

Variety

Sam Nivola plays a game of "This or That" and chooses his favorite vacation destinations, 'White Lotus' characters and taking advice from his actor parents. He breaks down a grueling underwater shoot for 'The White Lotus' and his thoughts on his character's fate.

Transcript

00:00What's up? My name is Sam Nivola and we're gonna play This or That with Variety.

00:10Relaxing vacation or adventurous vacation?

00:15Relaxing vacation. Lots of the time my job involves going away to work in places that

00:22feels like a sort of adventure and then you never get time to actually just chill.

00:27Favorite place that I've been to I mean I love Italy but that sort of feels like

00:32not much of a holiday because I've got a lot of family there although no who am I

00:37kidding it always feels like a holiday maybe Italy or Thailand. Thailand was

00:40fucking awesome and unlike anything I've ever seen before.

00:47Should we check it out?

00:50My favorite thing to do when I was in Thailand was probably to go to the beach and just swim.

01:00Bangkok was kind of my favorite part getting to walk around like a big city and just see

01:06people going about their days and eavesdrop and you know do all that fun stuff.

01:11Poolside lounge or spend the day on a yacht?

01:15Poolside lounge. I fucking hate boats. I can't stand boats. I get seasick.

01:20Drink a pina colada or a protein shake?

01:23A pina colada or a protein shake? I'm gonna go protein shake for my boy protein pee.

01:29What did I think of my character dying and coming back to life? Well I was stoked that he came back to life.

01:33It was funny reading it for the first time. I kept thinking to myself like there's no way

01:37my character dies. Like I feel like it would be too tragic you know and I was like maybe

01:44maybe he does and then he didn't. As soon as I read it I was like okay this makes sense.

01:49He's doing the old bait and switch on the audience.

01:58Shooting the underwater scene it was terrifying. So I get really claustrophobic

02:02like me Sam. It was one of the last days of the shoot and we were in a soundstage in Bangkok.

02:08I spent the whole day doing it where I was underwater. Couldn't see. Obviously I mean

02:13you know I could get it opened my eyes but the water was kind of gross so I didn't really want

02:17to do that. And the only way I could breathe down there was with these like cans of air

02:21because I was way down underwater. And then they did a version of it which is not in the final cut

02:27where I'm zipped up inside of a body bag under the water with a can of air and I'm they had

02:35underwater speakers and they'd yell action. I'd take a big breath drop the can and then like

02:40unzip myself from this body bag not being able to see anything. Try to swim up to the top and then

02:45pretend to die. And then one of the scuba guys would like pass me his octopus and I'd have to like

02:51clear it and do it. Anyway it felt like one of the stories that Jason Isaacs would tell me about

02:56shooting Blackhawk down but the only difference is I'm a skinny boy on vacation who's just drowning.

03:03It was a lot less dramatic than it felt. You were born in London. UK snacks or American snacks?

03:10Definitely UK snacks. My favorite UK snack is probably either a flake bar, is that what they're

03:17called? Plastic dairy milk chocolate bar or uh Walker's prawn cocktail flavored chips or crisps

03:25I should say. They don't have in America. TikTok or Instagram? Instagram I don't have TikTok. I spend a

03:31lot of time on YouTube. I love watching stupid fucking YouTube videos and I love like on Instagram

03:36I basically follow my friends and then like soccer highlight accounts and then like cute animal videos

03:45love that shit. My teams are Everton in the UK which I'm sure a lot of people will hate me for but

03:53we suck so you can't hate me too much. Whoever you support is doing better than us so we're

03:59we don't deserve the hate. And then Rome in Italy because I've got some family that lives there.

04:06Brooklyn or Manhattan? Oh shit that's a good one. I feel like Brooklyn is better but I also feel like

04:14growing up in Brooklyn you feel like you haven't really like made it until you move to Manhattan

04:20and now I'm living in Manhattan and I absolutely loved it but I think I want to like raise my family

04:26in Brooklyn. I don't know. Brooklyn's also changed a lot um in recent years in a way in ways that

04:32Manhattan maybe hasn't. Favorite thing to do in Manhattan is maybe to go to the Russian Turkish baths.

04:41Love those. Walk around go see a play. Can't do that in Brooklyn really. I mean there's one or two

04:47good theaters. Favorite thing to do in Brooklyn is probably have my mom cook for me. Oh play soccer.

04:54Play soccer at the piers at Pier 5 where you can overlook the whole skyline. It's amazing there.

05:00White Lotus Season 1 or White Lotus Season 2?

05:04Oh White Lotus Season 1 or Season 2? I don't I can't answer that question. I love them both.

05:10They're so different. I feel like it's like apples and oranges and um yeah I can't say. They're both

05:18great. When I was cast in the White Lotus I freaked out. It's such a surreal thing. I just didn't think

05:24it was happening. I was like there's no way you have the right guy. Like it must be someone else that

05:30my agent represents or something like that. Like I was just I couldn't believe it. It took me a few

05:38days to actually wrap my head around the whole situation. If you could choose would you rather

05:44play a guest or play a hotel staff member on White Lotus? I think either way your chances of dying are

05:51higher than if you are not at a White Lotus. So you're fucked either way. The guests are having a nicer

05:58time of it. But the staff at the hotel are always so much more grounded, level-headed,

06:05lovable people. So I don't know. Maybe a guest just so that you can live your last

06:10hour as being pampered. Hang out with Jacqueline or Lori? I'd say probably Lori. She's a little more

06:18real. Jacqueline's cool but at least you can have a real conversation with Lori I think. Go out for a

06:24drink with Chelsea or Frank. Oh definitely go for a drink with Frank for sure. I mean he's a fucking

06:32nut. And I got in my head what I really wanted was to be one of these Asian girls getting fucked

06:40by me. Not much of that monologue was scripted. Like I think he came up with a lot of it on the fly.

06:47You know Rockwell's just a total improvisational genie. They came home from shooting that and

06:54Walton was like you guys are not gonna fucking believe what I just witnessed. It was sure enough

07:00one of the one of the best monologues I've ever seen on TV for sure. Film in the morning or film at

07:08night. I gotta say exterior night shoot especially if we're talking about Thailand because the sun

07:13is a killer over there. And at night it's actually pretty mild and calm. It's a long time to be away

07:22from home. Seven months. It's a 12 hour time difference from New York at least which is the

07:29longest time difference you can have on the planet Earth. So it's impossible to stay in touch with

07:33people and you're just so far away. I had my girlfriend come and visit which helped for sure

07:38but it was also there were good things about the distance and the homesickness which was that

07:43it was so much easier to sort of sink into your character and get down to work because you didn't

07:50have very many distractions I guess. Mom's advice or dad's advice? Man maybe mom's advice. No the best

07:59thing is them together because they're very different people and they often have different advice and I

08:04think it's kind of good to have a little angel and a devil you know. Attend a fashion show or walk in

08:12a fashion show. Attend a fashion show. I walked in one fashion show and it was absolutely terrifying.

08:18It was so nerve-wracking because I'm sure if I did it more I'd get used to it but it's just not what I do

08:25and it was so scary. I'm just clearly not like a model and when I when I walked in this show

08:32all the models thought that I was there some like assistant PA person so I was like standing in line

08:41getting ready to walk this show and I had about four of the most beautiful people I've ever seen

08:47in my life come and hand me coffee cups really quickly and I was like fuck wait I have to walk

08:52in the thing. It was too panic inducing. Stay in or go out. Free afternoon definitely go out. I'm a very

09:01restless person. I don't like going out partying very much but I like getting getting out of the house in

09:08general. Watch TV or watch a film. TV or film movies for sure. Thousand times. It's the last film I

09:16watched. This anime called Neon Genesis. I just watch the show and then the movie and it's it's fucking amazing.

09:26Driver or passenger? Driver. I love driving and I never get to do it because I'm a New Yorker.

09:33You know when you see in New York like on the street cars that have a for sale sign and they say how

09:37much it is and they have a number to call. There was a 1984 Alfa Romeo Spyder Veloce in black parked

09:45on my block in Harlem for like a year and I was so tempted to buy it but then my dad was like if it snows

09:52then the roof is fucked and like someone will steal it and it's also just a pain in the ass having a car

09:57in New York but that's that's kind of my dream car. Be asked out or ask them out. Maybe be asked out

10:04I think I'm I don't know if I've ever been asked out yeah I don't think I have that'd be nice

10:10a little I don't know role reversal

Sam Nivola on 'The White Lotus', British snacks & his favorite NYC spots | This or That

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