The following includes references to suicide.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for “The White Lotus.”
From the outside looking in, it appears that “The White Lotus” star Walton Goggins has it all: a wife, a son, and a successful career in Hollywood. “When I say my life is improbable, there is no bookie in f***ing Vegas that would take this bet — [that I] would ever, ever, ever have the life that I’ve led,” Goggins told GQ in February. “And I don’t take it for granted, man.”
Still, Goggin’s life hasn’t been without its fair share of tragedy and grief. Prior to meeting his current wife, Nadia Conners, and going on to have their son, Augustus, Goggins was married to Leanne Goggins, née Leanne Knight. Sadly, the marriage ended in tragedy. “I had someone in my life that committed suicide, and she was my wife,” Goggins revealed in the no-holds-barred interview. After first going missing, it was revealed that she had died by suicide. Following that revelation, Goggins said that he felt like there was no coming back from it. “I spent the next three years looking for an excuse — not to end it, but certainly putting myself in situations that were questionable, not with drugs or anything like that, just life experiences and traveling. And I really went all over the world.” First stop: Thailand. Goggins visited the country long before he filmed “The White Lotus” there and has much more in common with his character, Rick Hatchett, than meets the eye.
Walton Goggins’ White Lotus character is a surreal case of art imitating life
In the dark comedy drama series created by Mike White, Rick embarks to Thailand on a quest to find and seek revenge on the man who killed his father, whom he never met. Unfortunately, Rick’s girlfriend, the young, gullible, and hopelessly in love Chelsea (played by “White Lotus” actor Aimee Lou Wood), is unwittingly along for the ride. It ultimately cost her her life.
“I went to Thailand 18 years ago after a trauma in my life, looking for peace, looking for some resolution that was not so dissimilar from what Rick was looking for,” Goggins divulged during an interview with Vulture, referring to his first wife’s death. Although Goggins had already moved on with his now-wife Nadia Conners, it was painfully obvious that he was still reeling from the trauma of his first wife’s suicide. “I was as lost as Rick is lost. I had nothing for my partner. I understood, intimately, Rick’s frame of mind,” Goggins said about the surreal case of art imitating life.
Goggins admitted to GQ he still hadn’t had the time to “fully unpack the symmetry” between the shell of a person he was twenty years ago arriving in Thailand with the person he is today, ironically portraying another man in the throes of such deep pain. However, he said he had a fleeting thought about it when he first arrived on location in Thailand. “I thought, God, I wish I could hug that guy. I wish I could whisper in his ear, ‘You’re going to be okay. Life continues, and it continues for everybody if you can just hold on and lean into it and keep walking the walk that you’re walking, and keep looking for the answers.'”
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