SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 2 of “The White Lotus,” streaming now on Max.
“The White Lotus” pulled another surprise in the second episode of Season 3, with an Oscar-winning actor making a voice cameo.
Yes, that was “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Ke Huy Quan on the other end of that panicked phone call.
In the first episode of the season, the Ratliff patriarch Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is contacted by journalists asking about some shady financial stuff he may have been involved in a few years ago, so he leaves his former business partner Kenny a voicemail. In Episode 2, Kenny finally calls Timothy back and is revealed to be Quan. (The actor is not listed in the episode credits or credited for the voice cameo on IMDb.)
“Why’s The Wall Street Journal calling me, Kenny?” Timothy asks his old pal.
“I don’t care about the fucking story,” Kenny responds frantically. “Because 20 agents just raided my fucking office! Fuck me. I’m done.”
While Kenny freaks out about the possibility of going to prison, Timothy starts to sound guilty: “You told me this couldn’t happen. You fucking swore that this couldn’t happen.”
“I didn’t think some whistleblower bitch in my office was going to rat me out to the media and the fucking FBI,” Kenny replies. The situation sounds dire: Kenny says the feds seized everything: “my accounts, my emails, all the fucking documents.”
Kenny also reveals he’s calling on a burner phone and tells Timothy he is definitely implicated.
“This was a favor to you, remember that?” Timothy shouts. “I didn’t wanna do it! This was all you, and now I’m wrapped up in some money laundering bribery situation, and I only made $10 million off of your stupid fucking scheme!”
Then Timothy gets more serious: “I swear to god, Kenny, if you fuck me on this, I will kill you. I will fucking kill you, you hear me?”
Good thing Kenny is across the globe. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m gonna fucking kill myself,” he responds before Timothy hangs up.
This isn’t the first time “The White Lotus” creator Mike White has recruited a very famous friend to play a small voice part in his vacation dramedy. In Season 2, Laura Dern is heard on the other end the phone as the estranged wife of Michael Imperioli’s character, Dominic.
