Jason Isaacs appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss his Emmy nomination for The White Lotus and guest host Tiffany Haddish did her best to get him to talk about his full frontal nude scene.
The actor has previously been reluctant to be part of the conversation about the scene, which involved his character Timothy Ratliff accidentally exposing himself to his children, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola, and Sarah Catherine Hook. But Haddish remained fixated on whether or not it was a prosthetic, even spraying Isaacs with water when he seemed to dodge her questions.
“It made another appearance,” Isaacs revealed after Haddish sprayed him and said “I want to know about the penis!” He noted that it was “funnier the second time” because the kids yelled, “Dad, put it away!”
“But the rest of the scene didn’t work,” Isaacs recalled. “And I said, ‘Mike, you cut my second dick [scene].” The actor affirmed that creator Mike White didn’t keep both scenes in the episode, but delighted Haddish by being willing to discuss his penis. “You never can talk about penis too much with me,” she told him.
In March, after the episode in question aired, many viewers speculated about whether it was Isaacs’ real member or a prosthetic. In an interview with CBS Mornings, Isaacs addressed the conversation around his character’s body part being shown on TV while also dodging anchor Gayle King’s question about whether it was actually prosthetic.
A lot of people are debating it. It’s all over the internet,” Isaacs said. “And it’s interesting because the best actress this year is Mikey Madison at the Oscars. And I don’t see anybody discussing her vulva, which was on television all the time… I think it’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men. But when women are naked — Margaret Qualley as well, in The Substance, nobody would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, it’s odd that there’s a double standard when it comes to discussing [this].”
The actor later clarified his comments and apologized. “I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all,” he told Variety. “There is a [different] double standard — women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.”
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He added, “I absolutely should not have mentioned those two actresses, whom I respect enormously. Mikey Madison I’m a massive fan of. My point wasn’t that men have had a harder time than women — that would be absurd. Women have had a monstrous time on camera forever, and I hope to God that is changing.”
For what it’s worth, Nivola and Hook confirmed to TV Insider that, yes, Isaacs did wear a prosthetic. And he seemed to like wearing it. “It was a prosthetic,” added Hook. “He was very excited to do it. I think he took pride in the prosthetic.” Nivola added, “He’s like, ‘It’s my fake dick scene today!’”
