Theo James reveals he shot full-frontal scene for The White Lotus that got cut: 'Too aggressive'

Warning: This article contains spoilers about The White Lotus season 2, episode 3.

When Theo James dropped trou in the season 2 premiere of The White Lotus, his character Cameron gave his friend's wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza) quite the eyeful as a result. But it turns out that scene was originally even more revealing than it appears onscreen.

In the episode, Harper had taken Cameron up to her room just so he could borrow a pair of swim trunks from her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe), since his luggage never arrived in Italy for their couples' double date vacation. But she was caught off guard when he got fully naked right in front of her to put on the swimsuit, and she didn't know what to think about his behavior. Later, when she asked Ethan for his opinion on that moment, he brushed it aside. But things took a turn in episode 3 when Cameron convinced Ethan to party with him and two escorts while their wives Harper and Daphne (Meghann Fahy) spent the night in another city, and during their drug-and-alcohol-fueled bender, Cameron ended up sleeping with one of the escorts... in Ethan and Harper's room, no less. Party foul!

Below, James tells EW how that premiere scene almost contained a full-frontal moment for him. Plus, James, Plaza, Fahy, and Sharpe unpack how that wild night of partying will change everything for both couples moving forward.

Fabio Lovino/HBO Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Theo James, and Meghann Fahey on 'The White Lotus'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In the first episode, there's that uncomfortable moment where Cameron changes right in front of Harper — when you read that in the script, what did you think Cameron was thinking in that moment? 

THEO JAMES: I thought it was very interesting but also very White Lotus in a Mike [White, the creator,] way. What he does is — this is Mike's writing — he treads the boundary of how calculated that was, or was it just easy-breezy? On the day, we had to figure out what that was because the original derivation of it, it's kind of full-frontal, if you know what I mean. We shot that and it felt too much, too aggressive. What we came to is a bit more opaque, and that's exactly what Mike does so well. You're never sure a hundred percent of the characters' intentions.

What was Harper thinking in that moment?

AUBREY PLAZA: She's really skeptical of this couple, of their motivations, of them as human beings. At that point, she's trying to play nice, she's trying to accomodate, but she's really taken aback. She has no idea if this guy is doing this on purpose in some kind of manipulative way, or if that's just what you do — people get naked in front of each other, big deal. So it hits a nerve and she doesn't know how to react. She doesn't know how she feels. Without spoiling anything, it plants the seed for stuff to come.

WILL SHARPE: It's the beginning of a series of events that start to expose the cracks in their relationship and it forces them to confront their underlying issues in their marriage.

Francesca D'Angelo/HBO

By the end of episode 3, Cameron and Ethan's wild night away from Harper and Daphne ends with Cameron having sex with an escort in Ethan's room. How does this impact the couples' vacation moving forward?

PLAZA: Well, Harper doesn't know what happened. She has no idea.

SHARPE: It definitely leads to more doubt and affects their trust. It leads to them questioning where they're at and leads Harper to question whether she knows Ethan as well as she thinks she does, and Ethan is trying to work out who he is and who they are as a couple now that they've come into this money. How have they changed? Are they good people? Are they bad people? They both quietly judged Cameron and Daphne, but this is the beginning of both of them wondering, is there something more to this carefree way of thinking, their way of life? Maybe there's something in it for them too.

MEGHANN FAHY: It's a dynamic that Daphne and Cameron are a bit more comfortable with and used to. If anything, it really changes things for Harper and Ethan.

JAMES: I think it's sown a seed of deep distrust in the other couple, whereas we had already functioned in our own messed up way fairly well based on love but also based on games, playing these games with each other constantly.

FAHY: And they both reveal that to the other couple in the same moment.

JAMES: Whereas what we do is we drag them into our own world of messed up mistrust but also a kind of wildness that they're seeking from their own relationship. So it's both good and bad. Initially we want one-upmanship. Both couples, you see a competitiveness between them, but as the story goes on, we all become intertwined as a foursome and all the lines get blurred.

FAHY: Two people like Cameron and Daphne would be aware of how their behavior as a unit is affecting Harper and Ethan, and seeing the evolution of that is something they sort of get off on, too. Even though in the moments they're presenting themselves as a couple, it doesn't feel overt, it feels authentic, and it is. I think they're also not unaware of how it's affecting the other couple.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The White Lotus airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.

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