Patrick Schwarzenegger: Why I Kept ‘White Lotus’ Casting a Secret From Family

Patrick Schwarzenegger inspired a theory from his mom Maria Shriver that almost tempted him to spill the beans about his “top secret” casting on season three of The White Lotus.

Schwarzenegger told Today Tuesday that he didn’t reveal the big news to anyone except his fiancée, Abby Champion—but then his mom noticed he was “acting weird” at a family gathering. To explain the off behavior, Shriver and Schwarzenegger’s sister Katherine “thought we were pregnant.”

“They thought Abby was pregnant,” he continued, “And they just kept like hounding me, hounding me, hounding me.” The Schwarzeneggers are big fans of the show, he shared, so keeping the secret was tough. He didn’t even tell his famous father, actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I didn’t even tell [my dad] because I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to tell him and then he tells some other person in the industry,’” Schwarzenegger told the site. He had received a strict warning when he found out he’d landed the role—which is based in Thailand this season—that his casting was “top secret.” Champion “was the first person I told and that’s the only person I told.”

His mom’s “hounding” ultimately got her some news, and even though it wasn’t about a brand new grand-baby, she was overjoyed. Schwarzenegger revealed that he told Shriver and the rest of his family about his new job just before the casting was officially announced in January.

Shriver expressed her glee via Instagram, “Patrick, Patrick, Patrick! I’m so proud of you!” she wrote then, for getting “cast in one of my favorite shows of all time.” She added, “All that hard work and determination is really paying off.”

Schwarzenegger also revealed that his family came to visit him in Thailand during the “last few months” of filming. “It’s different when people visit maybe one of my dad’s sets or something, when it’s a new movie and they don’t know anything—but this was different because they’re such huge fans of White Lotus. So, it was a cool thing for them to be there and to witness it,” he told Today.