If you’re like most of us and have been keeping up with season three of HBO’s The White Lotus, you’ve become familiar with Victoria Ratliff – a spacey Southern matriarch dependent on lorazepam and keeping her North Carolina family intact while visiting Thailand.
But did you know that the actress who plays Ratliff used to call Mississippi home?
Parker Posey was born in Maryland before her family moved to Louisiana. When Posey was a teenager, they moved across the state line and settled in Laurel. There, Posey attended R.H. Watkins High School while her mother worked as a chef for Viking and her father as the owner of a local car dealership.
While her father, Chris Posey of Chris Posey Chevrolet, has passed away, Parker’s mother still lives in Laurel. In a recent interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the actress took a moment to shout out her upbringing.
“I grew up in Louisiana and Mississippi,” she said. “My mom is in Laurel. Little shoutout to Laurel and my mother.”
Posey added in a separate interview with Variety that when preparing to play Victoria Ratliff, she was able to pull bits and pieces from growing up in the South to get in character form as a wealthy housewife with a loooong drawn out accent.
“I’ve met some really wealthy people and Southerners that are almost affected, right? So, that’s what I did. It’s so fun to play. It’s the theatricality of southerners, and I’m from the South,” she explained, noting that she tried to bring some Tennessee Williams (another Mississippian, by the way) flare to the role.
Parker Posey tells me her “White Lotus” accent was inspired by her southern roots, James Spader and “The Official Preppy Handbook.” #justforvariety #TheWhiteLotus #ParkerPosey https://t.co/sAfTej8Djv via @variety pic.twitter.com/ae40unAfmh
— Marc Malkin (@marcmalkin) February 18, 2025
If you’re not yet a fan of The White Lotus, you may have seen Posey in other films like Dazed and Confused (1993), Party Girl (1995), and The House of Yes (1997). Some even consider her “Queen of the Indies” after taking the independent film scene by storm following her graduation from SUNY Purchase, where she studied drama.
She’s also not the only character on this season of The White Lotus with some southern charm already ingrained. Sarah Catherine Hook (Piper Ratliff) and Walton Goggins (Rick Hatchett) are both from Alabama.
If you want to see Posey in her role as Victoria Ratliff or are just in the mood for a satirical, often dark comedy to pass the time, new episodes of The White Lotus air Sunday nights at 9/8c on HBO and stream on Max.
