Sarah Catherine Hook On Turning into Piper for The White Lotus

Sarah Catherine Hook thought Mike White was taking part in video games together with her. After an preliminary audition for the third season of The White Lotus—for which White is the only creator, director, and author—Hook had a callback with him. She had subsequent to zero context apart from her character’s title and a few strains. “Going into it, I believed it was gonna be a very intense callback,” she tells me over Zoom per week earlier than this season’s premiere. “We’re gonna have massive philosophical talks in regards to the position of Piper, and I actually must be on my shit for this lady!” However when White arrived on the decision, she felt the stress barely deflate as he sat there on the display grinning at her.

“Mike was like, ‘Heeeeeeey, what’s up?’ It was so informal, as if we had been out getting lunch or one thing,” she says. “He stored being like, ‘The place are you?’ or ‘How was your Christmas?’ after which ‘Pay attention, I liked your tapes. You are nice! Let’s simply do the scene, and if I’ve any notes, I am going to give them to you. However like, I do not know… I feel you are nice.'” Hook sat in disbelief earlier than doing the scene, and the callback was over shortly after. “Normally, that is a nasty signal. I believed, ‘I am so confused. What simply occurred?’ That was the weirdest audition I’ve ever had,” she continues.

It is humorous to listen to from Hook that she felt unprepared for the way uninhibited White ended up being as a result of I shortly felt the identical about her. She took our name from her mattress, carrying a white pointelle set and fixing unfastened strands of her messy bun. Earlier than I may even introduce myself, she lunges into an apology for her setting earlier than thrusting her arms out and expressing her pleasure for our chat. “I believed, ‘Let’s simply get into it!'” she says. Hook has the sort of unjaded enthusiasm that feels more and more uncommon on this trade. Inside minutes of assembly her, you get the sense that she is at all times doing the work as a result of she simply genuinely loves it. It is her job as a lot as it’s her life.

Hook describes herself as “an authentic fan” of the present. She tells me she watched it proper because it aired earlier than the hype and was immediately taken by it—as had been the over 9 million different preliminary viewers. Having the audition for Piper Ratliff, the center little one of a rich Southern household vacationing on the White Lotus in Thailand, land in her inbox was already a win in her eyes. “I am truly somebody who actually loves auditioning. I do not get like that entire, ‘Oh, I’ve to audition—how horrible! How dare they ask me to audition!’ I am one of many uncommon ones who … may audition for a residing. I imply, I do! I used to be simply so excited to hit this one and do it,” she says.

However this audition felt completely different in some ways. “There was quite a lot of preliminary speak about Mike actually liking my tapes and my search for the half,” Hook says. “I simply began to essentially really feel like I used to be the lady. However then it was so torturous as a result of we did not hear something for a month and a half, and I believed, ‘What’s going on?’ I used to be simply spiraling out for some purpose as a result of I believed, ‘Why is he taking part in this sport with me?'”

The time between Hook’s preliminary audition and the decision with White felt like an eternity. When the extremely anticipated last step she was agonizing over felt so informal and fast, she discovered herself instantly panicked. She received whiplash. “The subsequent day after Zooming with Mike, I received the decision that I received the half. I believed, ‘Why was that really easy and likewise so painful?'” Hook says. To rejoice, she determined to look at Faculty of Rock, which White wrote and starred in as Ned Schneebly, together with her household. “It was a healthful time,” she laughs.

Even after getting the position, Hook had this lingering feeling that possibly she was being punked. She at all times felt she was Piper, however the extra she received to know her, the extra she began to really feel freaked out by their similarities. She says, “I am from Alabama. Piper and I are each Southern women. I’m the center little one between two brothers in actual life. I grew up within the church. I went off to school, had sort of a brand new expertise, and that was my first introduction to Buddhism.”

As we have seen within the first few episodes of the third season, Piper hopes to interview an area Buddhist monk for her faculty thesis. Her household helps her educational pursuits of a faith that is not their very own however solely to an extent. “I used to be required to learn an Eckhart Tolle ebook in faculty, and I bear in mind going dwelling and being like, ‘Guys, Buddhism is the way in which.’ My mother was like, ‘However what about Jesus?’ She was freaking out, and it is simply humorous as a result of, once I learn the script with Piper, I felt like I used to be studying about my youthful self, my previous self,” Hook says.

To play what felt like a fantastical model of herself for probably the most well-liked reveals on tv (season three has surpassed 10 million viewers within the first week, doubling final season, which had doubled the one earlier than) was equal elements thrilling and terrifying. “I discover spirituality to be a really private factor,” she says. “It was slightly bit weak for me to go down that path as a result of I had additionally simply had a fairly intense non secular awakening not even a month earlier than I received the audition. The timing of it was tremendous bizarre however thrilling. I made a decision, ‘I am simply gonna run with this.’ Think about me being like, ‘No, I do not wish to check my limits as a result of it is too near dwelling!’ Completely not.”