Actor Julian Kostov on The White Lotus experience

The White Lotus is one of the most watches television shows of the moment. The sixth episode of season three, which ends on Monday, beat the viewership record set by the finale of season two. In short, if you aren't watching The White Lotus, then what are you doing?

One of the most absurdly bonkers, yet totally relatable TV dramas, Mike White's comic anthology is known for its twist, turns and complicated characters. In episode six, Bulgarian actor Julian Kostov, who plays the mysterious, and impressively buff, Russian Alexei in the Thailand-based season, has a starring role. His character, who is rumoured to have a much larger role in the finale of season three, finds himself wrapped up with the leading trio Kate (Leslie Bibb), Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) and Laurie (Carrie Coon). He's meant to be the hapless mate of Valentin, the health mentor of the "toxic trio", but is there more to his character? It would seem so.

We sat down with Kostov ahead of the finale of The White Lotus. And for want of not spoiling anything for those who haven't tuned in, we'll let him do the talking...

What was filming the White Lotus like?

Surreal. It’s every actor’s dream job. The process of working with a person like Mike White is so natural. Whilst there’s the pressure of being part of a piece of art that you are a fan of and having the loving yet critical eyes of hundreds of millions of fans, including our entire industry, the reality of the situation was such that Mike surrounds himself with the same energy and you can just feel this ease and support that gives you courage to express your bizarreness, your uniqueness. He inspires you to be the most you you can be and I think that’s where the key to The White Lotus’s success lies. It doesn’t try to be like something else. And it doesn’t need you to like it or get it. It’s unapologetically authentic and that’s why we all resonate with it so much because it’s able to reflect our thoughts, judgements, perceptions and fears right back at us.

Did you actually drink on the set? What was it you were shooting?

We do look like we’ve been drinking but in fact in the wildest scenes in the pool in the villa in episode 5 we had all just begun filming! Michelle, Carrie and Leslie had been on it for four days and for the rest of us that was our first day of filming. So I get the job two weeks prior, fly over, hang out with the boys because we wanted to create a sort of shorthand vibe between us and we met the girls properly on set in our underwear basically.

We were all nervous but as soon as we did the first take, we knew it would work like magic. And I cannot be grateful enough to Michelle and Carrie and Leslie for being so warm and welcoming. They were such leaders and really helped me feel accepted and on par from the get go. And it was as it looks - we had so much fun that night! My girlfriend was watching from the monitors and cheering me on, and we could hear Mike’s laughter every time we did some new crazy improv. The days filming this episode have probably been some of my most fun experiences on set ever.

Did you know what you were getting yourself in for when you signed up to the White Lotus?

Not really! All I knew when I had to make the decision was - “it’s an important role to Mike and the producers and you need to fly next week to film. Scripts to follow”. Then an array of surprises of all the variety of challenges I would have followed. And you don’t even know half of it yet ;)

How long did it take to film the episode?

I think we probably had a total of three real days to shoot all of that episode which is crazy! We were supposed to have more but the location was weather dependent because it was just on the cusp of the rainy season in Phuket and of course, one of the days it rained non-stop.

How did you get in shape for the show?

I wasn’t picture ready for sure when I got the call so I went straight to the gym and on a special protein based calorie deficit diet. Thank god I was a pro swimmer in the past so muscle memory is still very good! I’m still able to reshape my body very quickly - I think I lost 5-6 kgs of fat and water and retained muscle mass in less than two weeks. I had previously done even more extreme transformations for a part - in the WW2 drama Another Mother’s Son where I played a prisoner of war in Nazi occupied island of Jersey. I lost 11 kgs in two weeks and retained that for the whole 30 days of shooting.

You almost weren't in the show, how did that come about?

Like all Eastern European (and not only) actors in the world I had taped for Valentin. I had a call a month before that I was “final two” for the part (cast perfectly and played brilliantly by Arnas Federavicius) but shortly after that it didn’t go my way. My girlfriend who’s a huge fan of the show started crying and I comforted her saying “don’t worry, I can feel this will somehow come back around”. I don’t know if it was a white lie or a premonition I had but, famously now, I then got the part of Aleksei after Milos Bikovic dropped out. And to be honest, I am much more suited for Aleksei than Valentin. Aleksei is a wild, unhinged, really cheeky, big, loud character. There’s danger in his unpredictability. 

What was hardest about filming?

Nailing all the Russian language. If there’s one thing I really pride myself in, it's my linguistic skills. I speak four languages, I’m native in Bulgarian and (U.S.) English and I’ve played over 10 nationalities in my career and spoken in those languages and accents and I take it as a big responsibility to work hard to sound native or as close to it as I can when I undertake it. I’ve done huge scenes in Russian in Call of Duty but nothing like the 6-7 page scenes in The White Lotus, and these are wild overlapping arguments. These had an improvisational character and were not written out in the script so Mike just told me it needs to become a borderline scary argument, but gave me the freedom to make them my own which was exciting but also a huge responsibility.

I prepared the scenes with a friend and coming up to that scene in the club I was mad nervous. Especially because most of the supporting artists in the club were Russian. But once I heard “action” and Aleksei’s girlfriend and her posse gang up on him, we got so fired up that we couldn’t even hear Mike yell cut like 5 times! Once we finally did, there was a moment of silence and then the entire club erupted with cheers and applause. It was crazy. And then we did it 15 more times ha ha. It was really intense but super satisfying.

Were you aware of the storyline, or was everything under wraps?

Not when I got the part, but then I knew everything yeah. That was actually quite refreshing. On most jobs you wait for so long to get episodes month by month and learn where your character is going. But Mike already had everything written and HBO sent them all out.

What do you think the messaging of your scenes was about? What do you want the audience to take away from it?

The series expands outside of the hotel with the full moon party, Rick’s Bangkok adventures and the clubbing scene. We represent the wild side of Thailand, the party scene, the excitement, the drugs, the parties, the danger. From my perspective as an actor from Bulgaria, I can tell you it’s very rare to find a three-dimensional Eastern European character in Hollywood. We’re always a one/two scene drug dealer, pimp or world domination psycho guy, and if it’s an actual juicy part it’s played by an American or Brit… Best case scenario: a Scandinavian actor.

But what I am really happy about is that, with some of us growing up in the Western industry and challenging this status quo, most notably with the rise of my producing partner Maria Bakalova, there are more and more interesting parts for Slavic and Balkan actors. What’s unique in The White Lotus is that it’s the first time ever I’ve seen male Slavic characters to be portrayed as fun and sexy. This humanises us as an overall ethnic group so I’m happy I got to be a part of this new wave breaking down stereotypes on the basis of nationality and/or foreign accent. Our characters are cunning, able, sexy, free, with a backdrop of human flaws. Another timely example of that is Anora. So in the words of the great Robbie Williams: Let me entertain you! 

Now read an interview with David Shields on Punch

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