After weeks of fervent speculation, “The White Lotus” star Theo James revealed that, yes, he was wearing a prosthetic penis in a full-frontal nude bathroom scene in Episode 1.
During a Friday appearance on “The Tonight Show,” James let host Jimmy Fallon have his fun (and puns) with the “pee-pee scene,” in which his character, Cameron, strips down in fellow vacationer Harper (Aubrey Plaza)’s peripheral vision and she got a look at his private part.
“Dude, people thought it was the Loch Ness Monster!” Fallon joked. “Good for you, by the way.”
After some back-and-forth, the actor confirmed that the makeup team designed the “pee-pee prosthetic” with his input.
“‘Honestly, I just want it not to be distracting,’” James recalled telling makeup department head, Rebecca Hickey. “‘He needs to be Regular Joe because the scene’s about – you know, it’s not about the pee-pee, it’s about power play in sex, it’s about whether he deliberately [wanted Harper to see him naked] or whether it was an accident and what that means.’”
On the contrary, Cameron’s manhood turned out to be the ultimate distraction – not just to the audience, but to James, too, who was taken aback when he first saw the size of it.
“We get to set, and she’s got, like, a hammer or something,” he said, the audience and Fallon reacting with laughter. “I mean, it’s bigger than that. It’s like she stole it off a donkey in the field. I mean, the thing is ginormous.”
James said “The White Lotus” creator Mike White was no less shocked than he was: “It was nine inches flaccid and about four inches wide. We were like, ‘What the hell is that?!’”
Though his exposure lasted mere seconds, the shot left a lasting impression on the minds of many, including a “Tonight Show” producer who asked James if he kept the prosthetic after shooting wrapped. (“No, I don’t have it!”)
“The White Lotus” Season 2 premiered on Oct. 30, with episodes airing each Sunday on HBO and HBO Max. Created, written and directed by Mike White, the show stars Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Imperioli, Adam DiMarco, Haley Lu Richardson, F. Murray Abraham, Sabrina Impacciatore, Will Sharpe, Beatrice Grannò and Simona Tabasco, among others.
Check out the clip of James’ interview with Fallon above.
