Moo Deng Met the White Lotus Stars—and a Wholesome Moment Ensued
Every murder mystery deserves a cozy animated character.
And White Lotus stars, Sarah Catherin Hook and Sam Nivola, met an adorable icon that fits the bill: 7-month-old hippo, Moo Deng.
In a Feb. 25 video posted to Max and HBO’s Instagram, the actors visited the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, where the show’s current third season is located, to meet social media’s cutest sensation. The clip began with Sarah, 29, gushing over Sam’s excitement to meet Moo Deng, who went viral last year after the zoo shared a few videos of her online.
“Sam was so excited when he found out we were coming here,” she said, before Sam jokingly replied with, “I went to the gym just to look good for Moo.”
After spotting a few other animals, the duo—who star as siblings Lochlan Ratliff and Piper Ratliff alongside Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon Ratliff in the Emmy-winning drama’s latest season—finally saw the pygmy hippo walking around her spacious exhibit.
Sam, 21, then mentioned Moo’s viral status, asking his co-star, “Do you think she knows her name?” The two tested out his question by calling her name, and the animal playfully ran in their direction. Considering Moo Deng is an international star and aspiring singer, she made it clear that she’s aware of her power.
Sarah and Sam also saw the hippo, whose name translates to “bouncy pig,” eating with her parents before learning about her lineage in a game of “True and False.”
The sweet video ended with the actors inviting Moo Deng to their White Lotus season three premiere on Feb. 16, with Sarah noting they’ll hire a glam team to make her look perfect for the event. The pygmy hippo didn’t respond to their offer, but the Thailand zoo gifted them a shirt with the animal’s signature expression sprawled across it.
While Moo Deng won’t appear on the show’s titular resort, White Lotus is filled with notable stars. Keep reading to see what celebrities appear in the latest season….
How you like that? The singer known mononymously as Lisa went from being a rockstar on world stages as part of K-pop group Blackpink—alongside Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé—to donning the White Lotus staff uniform for her big debut as Mook.
Looks like Lucius Malfoy missed the train to Hogwarts and instead landed at The White Lotus. That's right: He may look different without the luscious blond hair, but the Harry Potter star is returning to the screen as another uppity father figure, playing Timothy Ratliff, described as a "wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife and three children."
Isaacs has also made more recent appearances on TV shows like Robot Chicken, The Great and Sex Education (alongside his White Lotus costar Aimee Lou Wood.)
Don't scream when you see it, but Posey—who plays Timothy's wife Victoria Ratliff—may look familiar from her movies Superman Returns, Blade: Trinity, Scream 3 and Dazed and Confused. She's also had brief stints on such TV shows as Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Portlandia and Search Party.
But the real rom-com fans will know her from the 1998 classic You've Got Mail, in which she played Joe Fox's (Tom Hanks) girlfriend Patricia Eden.
While you may know him best from family photos as the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, he has already made a name for himself acting in Gen V, The Terminal List and The Staircase before playing Saxon Ratliff in season three.
Prior to taking on the part of the Ratliffs' daughter Piper, Hook got her feet wet in the horror and fantasy genres, portraying Debbie Glatzel in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Juliette Fairmont in First Kill and Elena Milak in Monsterland.
You may also know her from the 2024 Cruel Intentions remake as Caroline Merteuil or from the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe, in which she played Catherine Allday Davis in Impeachment: American Crime Story about the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Nivola—who is dating Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann's daughter Iris Apatow—rounds out the Ratliff family as young Lochlan. But before hitting the shores of Thailand, he was in another show about a rich family at the beach: The Perfect Couple, playing Will Winbury, the son of Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber's Greer and Tag Winbury. He even costarred on the Netflix drama with White Lotus alum Meghann Fahy, who appeared as Daphne Sullivan on season two of the HBO show before playing Merritt Monaco on The Perfect Couple.
Nivola has also acted in White Noise with Adam Driver, Maestro with Bradley Cooper and With/In with Anne Hathaway.
Of course, White Lotus fans will recognize Rothwell from season one, in which she played spa guru Belinda in Maui. Not only is she reprising the part for season three, but the actress has also graced the screen in Insecure, Wonka, A Year and Change and Love, Simon. Plus, she lent her comedy chops to Saturday Night Live as a writer from 2014 to 2015.
The Iron Man alum is assembling to play Kate in The White Lotus after portraying Christine Everhart in the Marvel franchise. More recently, she starred in Palm Royale as Dinah Donahue and Jupiter’s Legacy as Grace Kennedy-Sampson.
The Gilded Age star—who may also look familiar from The Sinner, Fargo and The Leftovers—steps into the role of Laurie, who joins pals Kate and Jaclyn for a girls' trip in Thailand this season.
While Monaghan plays TV star Jaclyn on The White Lotus, she’s also a TV star IRL, having been on True Detective, Bad Monkey, Messiah and The Path. On the big screen, she's starred as Julia in Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Angie Genaro in Gone Baby Gone.
You'll feel justified in knowing that it's not all in your head—Goggins really does look familiar. In addition to starring in two Quentin Tarantino movies (playing Billy Crash in Django Unchained and Sheriff Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight), he is also known for being Boyd Crowder in Justified from 2010 to 2015.
The English actress joins the cast in season three as free-spirited Chelsea, who has an age-gap romance with Goggins' character Rick Hatchett. Yet, she is best known for her role as Aimee Gibbs on Netflix’s Sex Education and also appeared in Seize Them! and Daddy Issues.
Her acting credits may trace back 50 years—starting with Grounded God in 1975—but she most recently portrayed Prani Chiraanan on In Family We Trust in 2018.
The singer and former military man has acting credits that include Mechanic: Resurrection, Skin Trade and Paradox, as well as playing Pao on the TV series Farang.
If 13 minutes wasn't enough time to figure out where you recognize the German actor, allow us to refresh your memory. He played Rudolf Höss in The Zone of Interest, Reinhold Gräf in Babylon Berlin and Georg Elser in 13 Minutes.
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