Leslie Bibb Reveals Sam Rockwell's Last-Minute Casting in 'The White Lotus'

Sam Rockwell joined longtime partner Leslie Bibb on the set of The White Lotus after he landed a noteworthy cameo on the award-winning series at the “last minute.”

Two days after Sam’s jaw-dropping debut episode aired, Leslie, 50, detailed how her “beloved Sammy” got the small role of Frank shortly after she joined the White Lotus cast during a Tuesday, March, 18, appearance on CBS Mornings.

“I read all eight [episodes] and I remember when I got to this monologue and this scene and I remember thinking, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this on television,’ and I felt like it’s what Mike [White] was really trying to talk about with this show,” Leslie, who portrays Kate on The White Lotus, explained to host Gayle King. “He comes in and he’s like, ‘Here’s my truth’ and he’s unapologetic.”

Sam, 56, not only had success in landing a minor role on The White Lotus, but he also helped Leslie make her own audition tape. The Babysitter star found herself in a pickle because she auditioned for the show with a four-day deadline, all while filming the Clint Eastwood movie Juror No. 2 in Savannah, Georgia.

“I got the audition on a Monday, and they’re like, ‘You need to have this in by Friday.’ I was like, ‘It’s The White Lotus. I’m doing a Clint … how do I multitask?’” Leslie recalled to Gayle, 70. “And I was shooting with Chris Messina, who is Sam’s best friend.”

The stars aligned for Leslie because Sam was already planned to visit her that week, so she used his skills to her advantage.

“[I told him] ‘I’m going to put you to work, you have to be my reader in the scene.’ So, he read the scene with me and then Chris Messina taped the audition on his iPhone and that’s what I sent in,” the Iron Man actress revealed. “I feel like I had the best audition tape just because I had Sammy and Chris.”

While Leslie is rocking it in her season 3 role on the series, Sam made just as big of a splash when he joined the cast during episode 5.

In the episode, the audience learned a lot about Frank while he met up with Rick, who is played by Walton Goggins. Frank may seemingly become Rick’s hitman later the season, but his background story about why he became sober is really what had fans in shock.

“I was out of control. I became insatiable. And, you know, after about a thousand nights like that, you start to lose it,” Frank told Rick. “I started to wonder: Where am I going with this? Why do I feel the need to f–k all these women? What is desire? The form of this cute Asian girl, why does it have such a grip on me? ‘Cause she’s the opposite of me? Is she gonna complete me in some way? I realized I could f–k a million women, I’d still never be satisfied.”

Frank’s confession turned into a full-on bombshell when he revealed that he actually wanted to be “one of these Asian girls” and began to crossdress as one and have sex with men solely as the receiver while a woman watched.

Sam will appear on TV screens again during the Sunday, March 23, episode of The White Lotus, available to watch on HBO and stream on HBO MAX the following day.