Jason Isaacs has responded to critics of his character’s accent in The White Lotus.
The British actor plays Tim Ratliff in the latest season of the award-winning anthology series, the troubled patriarch of a family from Durham, North Carolina.
Because of this, he and co-star Parker Posey have both adopted thick Southern accents in the show, which he told Esquire have received a somewhat polarised reaction from viewers.
“The internet exploded with people going, ‘This is the worst accent I’ve ever heard in my life’,” the former Harry Potter star claimed. “But then there’s also people from Durham commenting, ‘Spot-on’. Or, ‘What are you talking about? He sounds exactly like my dad, or my dentist, or my swim coach’, or whomever.
“So, I feel slightly validated, although I can’t pretend that those thousand little barbs don’t hurt.”
Jason added: “I want to write back to each of them individually, and go, ‘Listen to this sample, then compare it to my voice’. But it’s not really my job, and I shouldn’t be reading their comments.”
The most recent instalment of The White Lotus saw Jason’s character accidentally exposing himself to his family members as the result of his continued downward spiral into drug abuse amid ongoing stress back home.
While Jason himself has spoken candidly about his mixed feelings about going nude on screen, his on-screen children have also opened up about that day’s shooting – and answered one big question many of us were left with after watching.
The White Lotus continues on Mondays on Now and Sky in the UK.