Duke University wants to be excluded from any narrative involving Jason Isaacs‘ unhinged character on season 3 of The White Lotus.
Duke’s Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs Frank Tramble told The New York Times on Wednesday, March 26, that the Blue Devils do not want to be associated with the hit HBO series.
“Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling,” Tramble wrote. “But characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists.”
Tramble emphasized that The White Lotus “not only uses our brand without permission, but in our view uses it on imagery that is troubling, does not reflect our values or who we are, and simply goes too far.”
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The statement comes as Isaacs’ Timothy Ratliff continues to go on a downward spiral while trying to prevent his family from discovering his alleged connection to questionable business dealings. The patriarch’s troubling behavior started after he began taking his wife’s (Parker Posey) Lorazepam prescription to calm his nerves. Eventually, he stole a gun from the hotel’s security guard and contemplated using it — with dream sequences showing him harming himself and his family, which includes three children (played by Sam Novola, Sarah Catherine Hook and Patrick Schwarzenegger).
In the sequences — featured in episode 6 — Isaacs, 61, is wearing the Duke T-shirt as a nod to his character’s alma mater.
“As imagery from the show is being shared widely across social media, we are using our brand to promote mental health awareness and remind people that help is available,” Tramble added in his statement.
Earlier this month, Isaacs made headlines when he was asked about filming a full frontal scene for the show, to which he told CBS Mornings, “A lot of people are debating [if I’m wearing a prosthetic] and it’s all over the internet. It’s interesting because the best actress this year was Mikey Madison at the Oscars — and I don’t see anyone discussing her vulva, which was on television all the time.”
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Isaacs referred to it as “a double standard for men,” adding, “When women are naked, [also like] Margaret Qualley in The Substance, nobody would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or nipples or anything of those things.”
The actor was asked if he was dodging the question about him wearing a prosthetic, to which he replied, “It is a dodge because I don’t think people really want to know how the sausage is made. That’s why. … I genuinely think it would be odd [because] there are some of the women’s characters who are naked [and] you would never dream of discussing. Not for a second.”
Isaacs has since walked back his comments. “I said the wrong words in the wrong way,” he told Variety on March 18. “I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all. There is a [different] double standard — women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.”
New episodes of The White Lotus air on HBO Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
