Jason Isaacs has admitted he told a bit of a white lie during the audition process for The White Lotus.

The Harry Potter star is currently at the centre of the action in the award-winning US drama, in which he plays the exhausted patriarch of the Ratliff family.

Speaking to Sharp magazine about the casting process, the Golden Globe and Bafta nominee revealed he had to audition for The White Lotus, the first time he’d had to do so for a role in quite some time.

After sailing through his initial audition, Jason then met with showrunner Mike White, telling him “how [The White Lotus] was my favourite show, how brilliant it was, and all the reasons it was so brilliant”.

The only issue there? “I hadn’t seen it.”

He explained: “You’re asked if you can horse ride, do origami, sword fight — whatever it is, you always say yes.”

Earlier in the interview, Jason revealed he initially tried to watch season two with his family long before the opportunity to appear in the follow-up presented itself.

However, they told him he’d have to catch up on season one first, effectively “banning” him from streaming it with them.

“But I never did,” he recalled.

That is, until he was cast in season three, after which he discovered “what I was saying was true” and it was “every bit as good as I’d been praising it”.

Jason joins a new cast that includes his on-screen wife Parker Posey and Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola who complete the Ratliff family.

Also appearing in season three are Sex Education favourite Aimee Lou Wood, pop superstar Lisa and Natasha Rothwell, reprising her role from the show’s original run, alongside fellow returnee Jon Gries.

Episodes one and two of The White Lotus season three are currently available to stream on Now and Sky, with new instalments arriving every Monday.