Giving her full support! Lukas Gage’s mom knows about her son’s famous sex scene on season 1 of The White Lotus — and she couldn’t be more proud.
“That’s a great ass. Get that money,” Gage, 27, recalled to Variety in a Thursday, March 16, interview of his mother’s reaction. “‘Get that bag and be committed.’ My mom’s cool. She’s like a cool little hippie lady. With nudity, I think we both share sort of a European vibe.”
The Euphoria actor, who starred on season 1 of the HBO series as staffer Dillion, made headlines in July 2021 when an episode featured him receiving a golden shower from costar Murray Bartlett, who portrayed hotel manager Armond.
Gage then revisited the intimate act for his role on the fourth season of You — which premiered in February — when his character, Adam, cheats on his girlfriend Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper) after struggling to come forward about his innermost desires.
Gage told Variety on Thursday that he’s received plenty of support from fans after his appearance on both hit shows — but others aren’t quite as enthusiastic.
“We have a couple people from the golden shower community that are very grateful that it’s being shown on screen, and they have some haters who are yucking some people’s yum,” he explained. “Everyone should feel heard and feel seen. I never wanted to make anyone feel scrutinized or like the butt of the joke. I just believe that everyone should embrace all their kinks and everything that they love about themselves and not feel ashamed.”
The California native added that the “goal” of his work onscreen is to help people feel “connected” and “seen” by the characters he plays.
“At the end of the day, you hope that the stories do more than just entertain. Maybe it’s just being entertaining for the sake of being entertaining, or maybe it’s an escape from whatever hard time they’re having in their life, but to be seen in these characters, to feel like you can connect and like somebody else gets it —‘I’m not alone out there’ — that at the end of the day is the greatest gift that I can have in this job,” he said. “ It’s the greatest compliment that I can get on anything that I’m playing.”
When it comes to his sexuality, Gage has often been candid. When a social media troll posted a critique about Hollywood’s pattern of casting heterosexual actors for queer roles in June 2022, the Moonshot actor quickly fired back.
“If Hollywood can stop hiring non LGBTQIA+ actors like @lukasgage to play LGBTQIA+ characters, that would be great,” the Twitter user wrote at the time. “He has played 4 so far. 1 was enough.”
Gage, meanwhile, responded, “U don’t know my alphabet.” When the original poster encouraged the Queer as Folk alum to “enlighten the whole world” of his sexual identity, he replied, “No,” with a red heart emoji.
The Supergirl actor has never publicly specified his sexual identity, but he has played several LGBTQIA+ characters over the years. Earlier this month, celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton confirmed that he and the Love, Victor alum were dating.
“Listen, I’m very happy [and] very much in love,” Appleton, 39, gushed during a Wednesday, March 15, appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I feel very grateful to be able to share my time with someone very special. Love is a really special thing and, I think, meeting someone that you connect with is very special.”
After a photo of the pair flashed on screen, the Color Wow director added: “That’s Lukas [when we were] in Mexico.”
The You star and Appleton first sparked romance speculation when they posted pictures while on vacation together at the St. Regis Punta Mita Resort in Mexico. They later walked the red carpet together at Vanity Fair and TikTok’s A Night For Young Hollywood party in Los Angeles on March 8.
However, when discussing his relationship status with the New York Times in an interview published earlier that week, Gage opened up about his desire to keep the details of his love life private.
“If they want to think that, they can,” he told the outlet. “I’m a pretty open book about most things in my life, but I have a problem with the culture of everyone needing to know everybody’s business and nothing can be sacred. It’s a weird line that I’m still trying to figure out.”
