Family Fun or Family Fight? It’s a Little of Both For Canadian Actor Adam DiMarco’s Conflicted Peacemaker in Season 2 of THE WHITE LOTUS

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   There’s a lot of pool and beach attire required for the uniformly attractive cast in Season 2 of HBO’s THE WHITE LOTUS. So be honest, Adam DiMarco: did you perhaps do a few extra push-ups to make sure you were in good shape? “My manager was like, ‘um, maybe you should work out for this one,’” recalled the Canadian actor with a chuckle. “He was saying, ‘this is HBO, a lot of people are going to be seeing it.’ But I always approach that kind of stuff from a character perspective. So I was exercising as much as I thought my character would. He’s not this super-jacked guy. But your vanity and ego sometimes kicks in, and you’re like, ‘well, maybe I could get into just a little bit better shape.’ ” DiMarco plays recent Stanford graduate Albie Di Grasso, who is on a family trip to Sicily with his father and grandfather, in Season 2 of THE WHITE LOTUS, which debuts Sunday, Oct. 30 on Crave. The Hawaii-set first season (which is available on Crave in its entirety) won 10 EMMY® Awards, and widespread acclaim led to its renewal as an anthology series. Of course, saying that Albie is on vacation with his dad and grandpa is really underselling it, considering that the former, Dom, is played by EMMY® winner Michael Imperioli (THE SOPRANOS), and the latter, Bert, is played by OSCAR® winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, The Grand Budapest Hotel). So if someone had told DiMarco a year ago that he would be in a scene with Imperioli and Abraham, discussing, um, the most personal of sexual details, what would he have thought? “I would have thought we were in some COVID head-game, or head-space phase, I don’t know,” DiMarco said. “Oh man, I have no idea how to answer that question. I mean, I’m still in awe that I get to be a part of this show. I loved the first season. I still can’t believe I’m in it.” In addition to DiMarco, Imperioli, and Abraham, Season 2 of THE WHITE LOTUS stars Jennifer Coolidge and Jon Gries (continuing their roles as Tanya and Greg from Season 1), along with newcomers Haley Lu Richardson, Theo James, Meghann Fahy, Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Tom Hollander, Sabrina Impacciatore, Simona Tabasco, and Beatrice Grannò. As with Season 1, all the characters are in the orbit of the resort for their own various reasons – as guests, or employees, or, well, “other.” The dysfunction with Albie’s clan becomes apparent quite quickly. As far as family trips are concerned, the Di Grassos’ scenes together should come with some sort of warning label. “Yeah, maybe something like, ‘make sure you have healthy communication within your family. Make sure you work on that. Go to therapy.’ Maybe that’s the warning,” DiMarco said. “Or more specifically, ‘don’t go on a Sicilian vacation with just your cheating sex-addict father, and your sleazy grandfather.” Indeed, a big chunk of Albie’s storyline involves his relationships with women, and how his dad and grandpa haven’t exactly been positive role models. Albie is the nice guy of the bunch – the “peacemaker,” as he describes himself – who is determined to never have a bad relationship with any woman, ever. But that’s a pretty high bar to set. “There’s definitely stuff bubbling under the surface with him,” DiMarco said. “He wants to have good relationships with women, but that’s not something you can necessarily always control. Every relationship is different, and has its own dynamic, and some of them can be kind of toxic. So he’s setting himself up for failure by saying that. And also, the fact remains he’s his father’s son. Mike White (series creator) is just so amazing at writing these complex characters who are not one-dimensional. Because nobody is just one thing, right?” Ultimately, Albie’s challenge is to carve his own path, blood relatives notwithstanding. “We can blame our parents for anything, or learn from their mistakes,” DiMarco said. “Like, you could say, ‘my father drank, that’s why I drink,’ or you could say, ‘my father drank, that’s why I’m sober.’ You’re really just responsible for making your own kinds of choices.” Speaking of carving his own path, DiMarco is certainly doing so with his breakthrough work in THE WHITE LOTUS. And hey, if the career keeps going well, maybe he’ll be super-duper rich someday, just like Albie and his family. “Oh, that’s very nice, but I don’t know if it will happen – they’ve got that generational-wealth thing going on,” DiMarco said. “But thanks!”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv