The White Lotus season 3 gave fans plenty to talk about, but few things stirred up as much chatter as Jason Isaacs’ portrayal of Tim Ratliff—especially his character’s prosthetic genitals and distinctive accent. While social media buzzed about the explicit detail, many were just as focused (and confused) about the accent Isaacs used for his Southern character, who hails from Durham, North Carolina.
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Isaacs leaned into the absurdity of the situation with humor. Joking about the accent and all the attention on his prosthetics, he quipped, “I was wearing a prosthetic tongue to do the accent. Durham, North Carolina, is hard to get your lips around.” He doubled down on the joke, adding that his real tongue is “small, green, shriveled, and shaped like a pretzel.”
Getting serious for a moment, the Harry Potter actor explained why his Southern drawl may have thrown off some viewers. The Durham accent is quite specific, he said—it doesn’t sound like the accents in neighboring regions like South Carolina or Charleston. Isaacs pointed out that while some vowels in the Durham dialect may resemble certain British tones, that doesn’t make it wrong or out of place.
Despite this, he noticed people online criticizing his accent, with many claiming he didn’t sound Southern—or even confusing it for an Australian or English accent. “A lot of people were saying, ‘He doesn’t sound Texan!’ And I’m like, of course not—I’m not supposed to be from Texas!”
Still, Isaacs took it all in stride, especially after some folks from Durham reached out and said his accent reminded them of their own dads. That validation seems to have put him at ease now that the season has wrapped, and thankfully, he won’t have to deal with weekly critiques of either his onscreen anatomy or his accent anymore.
