Walton Goggins has opened up about his heartbreaking connection to his White Lotus character, Rick.
The star candidly shared the details of his personal trip to Thailand over a decade before filming the beloved series’ third season.
Goggins revealed that he escaped to the Southeast Asian country “after a trauma,” referring to the tragic death of his first wife, Leanne Knight.
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Goggins’ character, Rick, journeys to Thailand alongside his girlfriend, Chelsea, portrayed by Aimee Lou Wood, to confront the man he believes has killed his father.
Speaking with Vulture, the actor confessed: “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.
“The circumstances were dramatically different. I was a year into a relationship with my now-wife [Nadia Conners], and I was as lost as Rick is lost. I had nothing for my partner. I understood, intimately, Rick’s frame of mind.
Goggins continued, “I read it on the page, and I thought the universe brought this to me for a reason: because I understand him, and I love him, and I love people like him. I don’t think he’s alone in the world.
In February, Goggins spoke with GQ and detailed travelling when his late wife Knight died by suicide.
“I had someone in my life that committed suicide… and she was my wife,” he explained.
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Journeying through Vietnam and Cambodia, Goggins began his travels in Thailand, telling the publication how he felt at the time.
“I thought it was really unrecoverable for me. Life on the other side of that,” he said.
“And 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 travelling. And I really went all over the world.”
When Goggins returned to Thailand two decades later, the memories of that time in his life came rushing back.
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“We pulled up to this dock… and I was like, ‘I know this dock. What? Okay. Yeah. No. I know this. Oh my God. That’s the room I stayed in 20 years ago. That’s my balcony. That’s where I was the very first day I came here, 20 years ago, and in so much f—ing pain, man.'”
“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,'” the star added.
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