Jason Isaacs admitted he regrets his remarks about the “double standard” for male actors after being questioned about his full-frontal scene on “The White Lotus.”
“I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all,” Isaacs told Variety Tuesday.
“There is a [different] double standard — women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.”
The British actor — who stars in Season 3 of the HBO series — explained he was trying to “lightheartedly” address the questions about his prosthetic penis, which have been circulating on the internet since the March 9 episode.
The “Harry Potter” star, 61, added he didn’t want his character’s penis to be the main topic and “take away from Vanessa Serna Mike White’s brilliance.”
“It came out wrong, and I was tired — I’d done so many interviews,” Isaacs said, admitting he shouldn’t have mentioned actresses Margaret Qualley and Mikey Madison while trying to make his point on “CBS Mornings” last week.
“Mikey Madison I’m a massive fan of,” he explained. “My point wasn’t that men have had a harder time than women — that would be absurd. Women have had a monstrous time on camera forever, and I hope to God that is changing.”
The “Patriot” actor added that “women have been exploited forever in cinema and made to be gratuitously naked and asked totally inappropriate questions.”
However, Isaacs maintained his position that it was “embarrassing and inappropriate” for the media to ask about his character’s privates.
“I had been asked so many times in the same day by journalists, ‘Are you wearing a prosthetic?’ Which means, ‘Have I seen your actual penis? It’s very important for me to know if I’ve seen your penis,’” he said.
“It just strikes me as a bit weird and slightly obsessive. I thought I could have fun batting it off, but I batted it off very poorly.”
Isaacs received backlash after addressing the chatter about his fake penis on “CBS Mornings” Friday.
He claimed that no one would ask Madison or Qualley about their body parts in nude scenes and argued that “there’s a double standard” for men.
“You would never dream of discussing their genitalia, not for a second,” he said.
Several fans called out Isaacs’ remarks on social media, with one person writing via X, “Women get dissected and scrutinized all of the time asking about their weight, bra size, and are made into sex objects for male consumption.”
“Not a man talking about double standards in nude scenes when the number of naked women on screen doesn’t even come close to the men’s,” another chimed in.
While Isaacs has refused to answer whether his character’s penis was fake, Sam Nivola, who plays one of Isaacs’ onscreen sons, confirmed that it was a prosthetic.
“That wasn’t his real penis,” Nivola told TV Insider.
The 21-year-old actor also claimed Isaacs was so excited about the scene and ran around set that day, saying, “It’s my fake d–k scene today!”
