The White Lotus season three has finally arrived, as have a new host of wealthy, entitled and problematic characters. One of whom is Victoria Ratliff, the reluctant kaftan-wearing mother-of-three who is addicted to Lorazepam and entirely uninterested in how her husband makes his money.
Given that the season is focusing on wellness and spirituality, and the clash between Eastern and Western approaches to those subjects, Victoria is a perfect foil. She is played brilliantly by Parker Posey. Here's everything you need to know about her.
Who is Parker Posey?
Parker Posey is an American actress who has been acting since the '90s. Little is known about her personal life, including her relationship status and whether she has any children.
She has been nominated for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Satellite Award, and two Independent Spirit Awards throughout her career.
How old is Parker Posey?
Parker Posey is 56 years old.
What has Parker Posey said about starring in The White Lotus?
Parker plays Victoria, the wife of Timothy (Jason Isaacs) and mother of Saxon, Piper and Lochlan. Victoria is not the most attentive of parents (neither is her husband), so she can usually be found in the spa or asleep in her hotel suite with her sunglasses on.
Posey has said her exaggerated Southern accent in the series was inspired by her own roots, having grown up in Mississippi, as well as 'The Official Preppy Handbook'. 'Do you know who James Spader is, the snob? I wanted to bring like a snotty affect,' Posey told Variety. 'I’ve met some really wealthy people and southerners that are almost affected so that’s what I did.
'It was so fun to play. It’s the theatricality of Southerners. I’m from the South so I was so happy to bring that Tennessee Williams kind of drama, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." It’s just that lady. It was a blast.'
What other films and TV shows has Parker Posey acted in?
Parker was labeled 'Queen of the Indies' for her roles in a succession of independent films throughout the '90s, including Dazed and Confused (1993), Party Girl, The Doom Generation, Kicking and Screaming (all 1995), The Daytrippers (1996), The House of Yes, Clockwatchers (both 1997), and Henry Fool (1998).
Parker has also worked on several mainstream projects like You've Got Mail (1998), Scream 3 (2000), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), The Sweetest Thing (2002), Superman Returns (2006) and Café Society (2016), the Woody Allen film she starred in alongside Blake Lively.
As for her TV roles, Posey has appeared as Alice White in Granite Flats (2015), co-starred as Dr. Smith on all three seasons of Netflix's Lost in Space (2018–2021), and won critical acclaim for playing Freda Black in the HBO Max miniseries The Staircase (2022).
How is Parker Posey involved in the Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni legal drama?
Last summer during the press run for the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel, It Ends With Us, an interview clip of Blake Lively, Parker and the Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa went viral on social media. In the video from the Cafe Society press run, the not-pregnant Flaa said to a pregnant Lively 'congratulations on your little bump' and Lively responded, 'congrats on your little bump'. Parker then turned around and tapped her bum and said 'what about my bump?'.
When the clip went viral, Flaa shared a video on her YouTube channel called 'the interview that made me want to quit my job'. ‘It took me a while to actually get over it,’ she said. ‘It affected me for a while because it made me nervous when I was interviewing other people after that.’ Calling the experience a ‘nightmare interview’, she added, ‘I just felt like, “You know what? It’s not okay to behave like that and I think it needs to be called out." And so that’s the reason why I did that now, so much later.’
In the clip, Parker asked the journalist if she was a fan of the movie, and of the director, Woody Allen. However, the interview quickly derailed and Parker and Lively turned to face and talk to each other leaving Flaa visibly uncomfortable. The two actresses were later called 'mean girls' and 'bullies' on social media. Lively and Parker have not responded to the video.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).