Parker Posey on Her 'White Lotus' Accent and Blackpink's Lisa

Parker Posey is explaining how she came up with the already much-talked-about southern drawl she uses as Violet Ratliff in the third season of “The White Lotus.”

Violet is the pill-popping matriarch of a wealthy North Carolina family vacationing at the posh resort’s Thailand location with her husband (Jason Isaac) and three children (Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook).

Posey says her exaggerated accent was inspired by her own southern roots – she grew up in Mississippi — as well as “The Official Preppy Handbook.” “Do you know who James Spader is, the snob? I wanted to bring like a snotty affect,” Posey told me at the series’ Season 3 premiere in Los Angeles, adding, “I’ve met some really wealthy people and southerners that are almost affected so that’s what I did.”

She continued, “It was so fun to play. It’s the theatricality of Southerners. I’m from the South so I was so happy to bring that Tennessee Williams kind of drama, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.’ It’s just that lady. It was a blast.”

Posey also talked about working with Blackpink’s Lisa, who makes her acting debut in “The White Lotus” as a member of the hotel staff. Posey admits she wasn’t familiar with the singer before they worked together. “I did not know [her], but the butlers at the Four Seasons were gobsmacked. They were like, ‘If I could just see Lisa,’” Posey said.

Toward the end of filming, Parker and co-star Natasha Rothwell went to dinner with some of the butlers. “Lisa happened to be getting a massage,” Parker said. “I texted her assistant and I got Lisa to come there and she stopped by and took a picture. She’s huge in Thailand. She’s such a beauty.”