Spoilers ahead for the fifth episode of “The White Lotus” Season 3.
Sam Rockwell has checked in.
The Oscar winner, 56, joined “The White Lotus” Season 3 in the fifth episode as a surprise guest star. In the story, Rockwell’s character is a friend of Rick’s (Walton Goggins).
When Rick meets him in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of his complicated quest involving his dead father, Rockwell’s character launches into a bizarre monologue about his sex life.
Sam Rockwell in “Better Living Through Chemistry” in 2014.
Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell attend the 2024 AFI Fest closing night gala premiere of “Juror #2” at TCL Chinese Theatre on Oct. 27, 2024. FilmMagic
Leslie Bibb in “The White Lotus” Season 3. Fabio Lovino/HBO
He describes how he moved to Thailand and used to spend a “thousand” nights having sex with random women, before he decided, “Maybe what I really want is to be one of these Asian girls.”
“So I put out an ad… found a guy who looked a lot like me,” Rockwell’s character says.
He continues, “I put on some lingerie and perfume, I made myself look like one of those girls. I thought I looked pretty hot.”
Rockwell’s character describes how some nights, three to four men would come “rail the sh-t” out of him, and, “at the same time, I’d hire an Asian girl to just sit there and watch the whole thing….I’d look into her eyes while some guy was f–-king me and I’d think, I am her, and I’m f–-king me.”
As Rick looks bewildered and unsure how to respond except to say, “uh-huh…right…” Rockwell’s character talks about how this experience pushed him into finding Buddhism, and how it made him want to get off “the never-ending carousel of lust and suffering.”
Leslie Bibb in “The White Lotus” Season 3. Fabio Lovino/HBO
Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Roman Griffin Davis in “Jo Jo Rabbit” in 2019.
Sam Rockwell speaks onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 10, 2024, in Hollywood, Calif. Getty Images
Rockwell’s presence in the show isn’t just to have an Oscar-winning actor deliver an absurd and explicit monologue.
He was likely already in Thailand, as his long-term girlfriend, Leslie Bibb, 50, is one of “The White Lotus” Season 3 stars.
In 2018, Rockwell told Us Weekly that he and Bibb had a “two- to three-week rule and then we see each other.”
The pair have been together for over 15 years, since 2007.
In 2022, Rockwell told the London Standard, “Leslie and I are very happy, we have a good life. We just like it the way it is. We don’t want kids. It’s interesting when you tell people this. They get very upset with you. I know more and more couples who don’t have kids.”
Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell attend the 2024 AFI Fest – Closing Night Gala Premiere of “Juror #2” at TCL Chinese Theatre on Oct. 27, 2024, in Hollywood, Calif. FilmMagic
Sam Rockwell, from left, Kathy Bates and Paul Walter Hauser in a scene from “Richard Jewell.” AP
Speaking with Rosie O’Donnell in 2012, Bibb said they first met at the famous Chateau Marmont, “the most cliché” meeting place, when she was getting dinner with friends and Rockwell was staying at the hotel to film the 2008 movie “Frost/Nixon.”
“I just smiled, and he smiled at me, and I thought, ‘Oh no [gasps and sighs], what’s that?’ Sometimes you just get struck,” she said.
The “Palm Royale” actress recalled, “I was flirting with him, I’d been going to therapy and I was trying to figure out why I hadn’t really been dating… I gotta figure out why I’m picking the wrong person over and over.”
Bibb added that at the time, “I was trying to be so like a badass and be like… ‘I’m not really looking for anything right now.’ And then three weeks later, I was like, ‘I love you so much.’”
Sam Rockwell and Leslie Bibb attend the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024, in Hollywood, Calif. FilmMagic
Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb in “The White Lotus” Season 3. Fabio Lovino/HBO
During a 2024 appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Rockwell revealed that his first date with Bibb was during the day, and he’d planned a date with a different woman that night.
“She loves to remind me of that,” he said. “She knew instinctively … She caught me, and then we went and got margaritas and salsa and chips.”
The couple have made many red carpet appearances together over the years. After winning a SAG Award in 2018, Rockwell addressed Bibb in his acceptance speech, saying, “I love you, baby, I love you.”
Later that year at the Oscars, he wore cufflinks with Bibb’s name on them, and during his acceptance speech for “best supporting actor” for “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri,” he addressed Bibb again, saying, “You light my fire, baby.”
Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” ©Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection
Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell in a scene from “Conviction” in 2009. AP
In 2024, Bibb appeared on an episode of SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, where she told an anecdote about watching Rockwell dance with Madonna at a “secret” Oscars after-party.
“Madonna had been watching him dance with me and she was like, ‘That’s the best dancer in this room,’ and she danced over to Sam,” she recalled.
Bibb said that the music superstar “started dancing with Sam, and he was spinning her ass around, and then all these men were like, ‘Oh, Madonna’s dancing with your man. You’ve gotta get in there.’ And I was like, ‘She can have him. It’s Madonna. This is epic. This is iconic.’”
Sam Rockwell and Leslie Bibb attend the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 10, 2024, in Beverly Hills, Calif. WireImage
Rockwell and Bibb have never reportedly married, but they’ve caused speculation over the years, as Bibb posted a photo of the couple on Instagram in 2017 and captioned it “the Rockwells.”
During his 2022 interview with the London Standard, Rockwell said that they are “basically married.”
“She’s in my will. I feel like we are married. We live like a married couple,” he said at the time. “I’m really proud of her. She’s kicking ass and … we are both actors, so understand our lifestyle. We can help each other with scenes. She’s awesome. She’s very kind to me and takes care of me.”
