Anthem Magazine

The White Lotus season three is kicking into high gear. As is customary on Mike White’s beloved series, the slow-burn-to-a-sizzle social satire is once again set against the titular resort, following the same Fantasy Island-type premise. After two award-winning seasons staged in Maui and Sicily, the show touched down in Thailand for another twisted crucible of nerve-shredding subterfuge.

This season, we’re keeping a close eye on one murder suspect in particular: Valentin, the almost-always-shirtless Russian expat and wellness guru at The White Lotus. A killer? Or a red herring?

Valentin is played by Lithuanian actor Arnas Fedaravicius, who’s well-known to fans as Sihtric from Netflix’s gone-but-not-forgotten historical drama The Last Kingdom. He spent five years on that series, and reprised his role in the sequel film The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die. In 2023, Fedaravicius followed up with his four-episode arc as Masema on The Wheel of Time season two. The White Lotus is arguably his biggest international exposure, and a career high for the actor.

It’s fair to wonder, too, at a time when plenty of prestige dramas top out at three or four seasons, how many more times White can conjure up The White Lotus magic. One thing is certain: The series was renewed for a fourth go-around in January. White is said to have “some ideas” for what subsequent installments might entail, and that he can imagine making up to “maybe six seasons.”

Anthem reached out to Fedaravicius to discuss his past, his path to The White Lotus, and his future.

New episodes of The White Lotus drops on HBO and Max on Sundays until the finale on April 6th.

Hi, Arnas.

Good morning, Kee.

Where in the world are you these days?

Right now, I’m in Scotland. Glasgow.

I hear you’re finishing up on a job this week.

I finished the job last night. Now I’m gonna be flying to Los Angeles. And South Korea soon. I’ve been living out of a suitcase for—I don’t even know. I’ve been living in hotels for about a year.

That comes with the territory—if you’re lucky enough.

I think I’d like to stay somewhere for a little bit longer. But then adventure calls.

Are you able to talk about the project you just wrapped on?

It’s a show called Summerwater. It’s based on a book. It’s a Scottish-English production for Channel 4. I’m playing a young man with dreams who moves to Scotland. He falls in love. They have a kid. Things change. He’s not necessarily happy. It’s drama, heartbreak, and painful stuff.

Meanwhile, The White Lotus is dominating our pop culture conversation again. I don’t have to tell you this: This show is a big freakin’ deal. And you fully knew that going in, didn’t you?

What’s The White Lotus? Never heard of it. [laughs] No, it’s insane. It’s crazy to be out here in the cold, going on socials and getting reminders of the wonderful times spent in one of the warmest places in the world. It’s some of the best work I’ve ever done with some insanely amazing people.

The weekly drop of new episodes is a standard of the past I didn’t realize I missed so much. It allows for anticipation and ongoing speculations from week to week. It’s a different kind of collective viewing experience. Something is lost when an entire season drops all at once. 

That’s very well put, and I agree with you. We get a little spoiled when everything drops in one day. Whenever you get something that quickly, you don’t appreciate it to the fullest. So I absolutely agree with what you’re saying. The collective viewing experience changes ‘cause there’s more anticipation. And people will wait, right? It’s as simple as that. Just wait a little bit. The waiting can be painful, but there’s payoff. It pays off every Sunday, or Monday if you’re in Europe.

I was talking to Jason Isaacs about this, too: Everyone wants to be on The White Lotus. And he made the great point that the reason is not because it’s popular or has a huge following. It’s Mike White’s writing. Actors follow good writing. I’m sure that rings true for you as well.

I absolutely agree with that. There’s external things like accolades. The show is very well-received. Everybody loves it. All of your friends watch it. The industry watches it. But at the end of the day, as artists, it is about the great writing. Jason once said, “The thing is, most of us would be doing this even if they weren’t giving us money.” And that’s because it’s so good. It’s about being a part of something that you truly care about. You can sense how good it is on the page when you read it.

Have you seen all eight episodes?

No! That’s why I’m like, “Come on, HBO!” [laughs] First of all, when they sent me the first episode, I thought that was all of it. A couple weeks later, they sent episode two and three. Then they sent four, five, and six. So I’m like, “Oh my god, this means I’m gonna see episode seven and eight, too!” No. I’m still waiting. I wonder if they’re ever gonna send us those episodes. I’ve forgotten what happens on the show. I was even excited watching these past episodes because I’ve completely forgotten what’s going on. I’m part of the collective audience in that way when it comes to episodes seven and eight. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t know who dies.

To me, this is the funny part, right? Because Jason told me everyone got all the scripts at the beginning. You know what happens in those episodes, or you did at one point if you’ve since forgotten them. There’s a lot of you in this cast. They really trusted that not one of you will say anything at any point. Even now. That’s the most impressive thing about this whole thing.

You’re the first person to bring this up with me, Kee. It is the most unusual thing. It’s a testament to Mike. Usually, there’s a team of writers. In my experience, whenever you start a show, you get two or three episodes—you just get a little taste. So you shoot that and you’re moving into the next block that starts the following week. In those situations, you find yourself going, “Come on, guys. Send us the scripts!” And here, on The White Lotus, three months before the job even starts, you get all of it immediately. I also think there were dummy endings. I heard about those at the beginning. I heard those exist, and it was to throw people off if there are potential leaks.

I totally believe that. There’s so much at stake. It only takes one blabbering person.

It felt like a sense of honor: “Oh my god, they sent us all the scripts?” They’re all so amazing.

I know we’re gonna be doing this dance around potential spoilers throughout this whole conversation, especially about your character. Valentin is very suspicious right now…

What? Me? Why? [laughs] He’s just a mentor. A health mentor.

Here’s something you’ve said about him previously: “There is something he’s perhaps hiding.” Maybe we can get to know Valentin a bit more in a roundabout way. How did they initially describe this character to you? What were you told you’d be portraying?

That’s literally what they told me. It was very funny, the description: a beefcake health mentor. A friendly yoga instructor. That was the description. He’s good at his job. That was the initial idea.

As Arnas, do you relate to the wellness staff or the guests more? Because the thing I find amusing about the whole dynamic between Valentin and the hotel guests is that a lot of these people, his clientele, don’t seem to want to relax at all. You’re met with, “Why do I have to do this? I don’t want a massage. I don’t need digital detox.” I think it really underscores an individualistic, Western mindset: “I want to do what I want whenever I want.”

I love that you’re picking up on all of these things. I did find it very interesting that The White Lotus experience is a clash between Western individualism—“I want to do this. Don’t tell me what to do!”—and the rest of the world. You’re literally going to this place and paying for what you don’t want. Personally, the entire The White Lotus experience was strange because I’m playing someone who works for the hotel, yet, as actors, we’re staying at these hotels at the same time.

Yeah, exactly. The Four Seasons being one of them. You all had total run of these places.

Right. So it’s like, “Put on this costume and do the work,” and then at the end of the day, you take it off. They’re like, “Mr. Arnas,” this and that, and you’re like, “oh yes.” It’s a fine line. They put you in a buggy and off you go. Personally, I would like to relate more to the people working at The White Lotus. The way I like to travel, it’s looser. I try to seek stuff out. I don’t get a lot of pleasure from just laying about being pampered. I need constant motion. So, okay, maybe I am a bit Western like that: “I don’t want to lay down.” [laughs] I don’t really know… I’m a bit of a mix, I guess.

I’m told that Valentin has a particularly big showing in episode five. Can you tease it at all?

What I can say is that it’s gonna be a huge party. It’s very splashy. A lot of dancing. It’s gonna be something you don’t really expect. By the end of it, there’s gonna be a most unexpected turn of events. You’re gonna be like, “no way.” That’s all the spoilers I can give you because, anything else? As you said, it’s a spoiler landmine so I can’t. I would just be telling you the plot at that point. But it’s gonna be good! I think episode five will be, by far, the most explosive episode yet.

You gotta hand it to Mike—again: This season is getting progressively better. I know there were complaints from viewers that the first few episodes were slow going. But when episode four dropped, some people went as far as to say it’s their favorite episode in the entire series.

Wow. The difference with this season is that we have more episodes to set up the huge amount of characters. I was talking to someone about this yesterday. I like the way they put it: With the first three episodes, we’re setting the chess pieces. We made a couple of moves. Now there’s foundation for what’s happening. Now we can attack what happens next, whatever that might be. With the fourth episode, we really kicked off, and it will only get progressively more intense from there.

If I’m remembering this correctly, you were in Thailand for exactly six months.

That’s right. 

That’s a long commitment. But I think you were well-prepared. You had spent five years filming The Last Kingdom. And about The Last Kingdom, you described that experience as kind of like going through college. You added that, with one of those seasons shot during the pandemic, you were sequestered in the same building, much like a dorm situation.

Kee, you’re hitting all the key points today. And I’m sorry for the silly pun. [laughs] I was just talking to a friend from The Last Kingdom yesterday about this, too. We were reminiscing about it: “Do you remember that?” We were living in what felt like dorms. It was like a college experience. And I guess The White Lotus then felt like getting a PhD. On The Last Kingdom, it was the mud, the horses, and it was freezing. With this “PhD,” we’re like exchange students going to a faraway place. Because I had that prior experience, there was perhaps some part of me that wanted to fulfill an urge to connect with everyone you’re working with to the same extent. It is like a family. I think my favorite part of that really peaked when we moved to Phuket, and we were staying at the Anantara and Rosewood hotels. It’s what I called “the forum.” Every morning, people would go to breakfast and push their tables together. There was a journaling station so I would journal and Walton’s [Goggins] family would be there. We would talk about books. There was a sense of togetherness about it all. So that’s one of my favorite parts of the job. And yes, it is a job. But more importantly, it’s the connections you make. I don’t know if it’s terribly cliché to say this, but it’s about the wisdom you receive from all these people. So that’s where the shows have parallel.

And you found yourself in the land of Muay Thai. As a boxer, that has to be alluring.

That was another thing. I guess there was a bit of synchronicity. No, not guess—I believe there was. For a couple of years after The Last Kingdom, I was thinking that I would really love to go somewhere in Asia. And my friends would be like, “Let’s go to Thailand to train!” If you train, it’s a dude’s paradise, right? It’s all about training. There’s always good food for that. There’s sunlight. Running on the beach. Riding around on a motorcycle. And repeat. On The White Lotus, I did have a lot of time off so I turned it into a sort of fight camp. There are all these masters. I saw some fighters and legendary trainers that I now look up to. That was like my trip within a trip. It’s like I’m living this very fortunate life of extreme luxury, and then we’d go to the more rundown gym or whatever. I was living the experience of Muay Thai. We’d go to the fights with the producers. I’m just a big fan of it. It was great to work, and also have some fun torturing myself in gyms.

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Did you at any point in your life want to pursue Muay Thai or combat sports professionally? You’re very athletic in the way that you’re naturally wired, which acting doesn’t require.

Well, before I started officially acting, a bunch of things were in juxtaposition. I studied philosophy. At the same time, I wanted to box, maybe because I was never allowed to. When I was growing up, my mom was like, “That’s a stupid sport. You’ll get hit in the head.” But because I was also studying philosophy, she was like, “Well, he’s building his brain.” I started boxing at the age of 19. It became a big part of my life. Over time, I started to really understand the level of discipline it requires. Prior to that, I’d never seen myself as really disciplined. Growing up, I was often told that I’m not. I was just very hyper all the time. And I don’t know that I ever wanted to box professionally. If I had at a certain point, I probably felt that it’s a little too late to start at that age anyway. So it’s the discipline from boxing I learned, which I like to apply to everything else in my life. It requires some of the hardest training. I think everything can be looked at through the lens of boxing. With acting, there’s footwork, voice work, and attuning to the emotions driving your actions. In a philosophical way, you can compare just about anything to combat sports.

To me, that’s the magic of acting: There are things you pick up in life and experiences, and from people you just so happened to meet, that can inform your next great performance.

That’s very well put. You’re right. This job lends itself to exploring many different hobbies. But the problem very often is that we pick up those hobbies only to a certain degree—to hopefully make it all look believable enough on camera. There’s something nice in that otherwise clichéd phrase: jack of all trades, master of none. I like the freedom this job provides, and maintaining a curiosity that makes you go, “I wanna learn this now.” And you can. If you really focus, you can learn whatever new thing you want. That’s the beauty of this job. And the pain of this job is that there’s a lot of time, which, if not a luxury, can be a lot of suffering. I think I’m fortunate ‘cause I see it as a luxury. It wasn’t always like that ‘cause I would think, “What do I do with all this time?” You have to know how to manage that time, and by doing so, you can master a lot of different things.

So you’re from Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. Am I pronouncing it correctly?

That’s very beautifully said. I like how you say it.

I’m not sure how old you were when this was going on, but you’ve talked about having spent a lot of time at the cinema growing up. By your own admission, you weren’t very academic so you often skipped school to do so, sometimes up to three times a week. When did the switch happen between watching movies out of pure joy and wanting to become an actor? What did you envision for yourself, going as far back as you can remember?

You’re so thoroughly researched. You’re like Nardwuar. I think I really started going to the movies at the age of 14. I remember once ending up at the wrong cinema by accident when I was to meet up with my friends. So it was like, “Well, I’m here. I might as well watch a movie by myself.” That was important. That was my one-person connection to the cinema. It was a new sensation that I can remember. I couldn’t explain it at the time. It was like a veil being lifted off. Your entire perception of the world changes for however long. If you’re watching David Lynch, maybe it lasts for a day. You’re kind of speechless. That’s when I started dreaming: “I want to do something with this.” It was around this time that I started running away from school. I also had a math tutor that I didn’t like so I would take the money and watch movies and buy books instead. And then I’d get on the bus back to the math tutor’s house so my mom could pick me up. I’d be like, “phew! math!” [laughs] I had this weird little ritual, and I still do it. Sometimes it’s hard to do ‘cause the screen is further away, but for some reason, after every movie, and the same with books, I like to kiss my two fingers and touch the corner of the screen or the book I’m reading. It’s me saying, “I’d love to be part of this somehow.” And my late grandfather was a sound director so I spent a lot of time at the opera house with ballets and things. I would sit in this booth with headphones on, thinking, “maybe this is something I want.” So I was interested in sound as well. That’s how it all kind of started. But I picked philosophy ‘cause my parents were like, “You can do that later in life.” I was like, “alright.” As a result, I chose something that’s about everything and nothing at the same time.

It’s the mothers’ worry. With boxing, as you said, she didn’t want you getting hurt. With art, there’s fear of instability. Incidentally, is it true that your mother was a Miss Lithuania?

Mrs., technically. She was married with kids. [laughs] She became Miss Lithuania in 1998 when I was six, seven years old. And she was a weather girl for a while so I grew up around television.

So she was chasing wild dreams, too. She understands. And you saw her chase wild dreams.

The way we’re raised—I don’t know if it’s a Lithuanian or an Eastern European thing—there’s this thinking that’s like, “be less.” Don’t think you’re too good. Don’t think you’re very good. She didn’t instill that in me, but I know that’s how she was raised. So winning Miss Lithuania freed her from those shackles and made her go, “Maybe I can do these things. Maybe I am beautiful.” That’s not to say that when I got my first job I didn’t still have those little doubts. I got the job, but I’m like, “Mom, I don’t think I should take it. I won’t be able to study philosophy next year. I’ll have to go to Italy to do this shoot.” Up until that point, she was always strict with me about studying math and getting a degree. Now she was like, “Are you dumb? You’re all packed. These are your bags. You’re gonna go and do this.” I’m very grateful for the parallel between her and myself that you’re talking about. Because she had her own experience, as a mother, she was able to see it happening to me and let me chase that. I was able to embrace my dream, and with philosophy, pursue it.

Are your parents watching The White Lotus?

Yes, they are. And my mom was in Thailand with me. She came over for ten days. She had a whole bunch of friends in Lithuania waiting for gossip. [laughs] She bought caps and other memorabilia, and took pictures. She has her little community of friends that watch episodes together.

Does she interrogate you about the show?

She hasn’t asked for any spoilers yet, surprisingly!

She’s a fan. If you’re actually invested, you would never spoil it for yourself.

It’s really nice. There’s a part of me, and perhaps in every actor, that’s forever seeking validation. I think I’m better about it now. I don’t think I seek it as much. I think the more you do something, the more you start to love it for what it is. In this case, for the creativity. Whereas in the past, I’d want to feel a pat on my shoulder. Over time, hopefully, you develop some sort of an internal mechanism to be able to do that for yourself. But it’s really nice to hear it from my mom. I can hear it in her voice, too. With my dad or my stepdad—male figures—it’s a bit unspoken, you know?

Yeah, totally.

Restraint. But you can still see it in their eyes. It’s nice to feel that support from all of them. 

This is me quoting you quoting your father: “If you star in a Western, I can die happy.”

[laughs] No pressure, dad! He of course took me to the movies when I was little. Every weekend, pretty much. That was our tradition. I think it was at the age of five when we went to a Leslie Nielsen movie. A spy movie. A comedy. I can’t remember which one. There were a couple of ‘em. He took me to that and bought me one of those rifles with the little red capsules that pop when you shoot. I also had a cowboy vest. The thing is, I never liked Westerns growing up. But during Covid, I was like, “Let me start,” and then I went, “Ohhh. I get it.” I’m working on my accents.

With The Last Kingdom, The Wheel of Time and The White Lotus, you have Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Max all covered. Yellowstone on Peacock doesn’t seem far-fetched.

It’s one of my dreams to get into that world. I’m not competitive about anything, but as far as horse riding goes, I think I’m pretty good at it. All of us actors have that on our resumes. That’s one of the reasons I started taking it up before I auditioned for The Last Kingdom. I invested in learning that with what little money I had. I was in Lithuania at the time. And once I arrived on the set of The Last Kingdom, I remember going, “Wait, nobody can ride a horse?” They pretended to know.

And for your efforts, you unlocked another gainful skill you never ever have to lie about.

I did, I did. I did it out of fear that everybody else knew how to do it. But no. Everyone’s faking it.