Murray Bartlett on ‘The White Lotus’ and His Long Road to Overnight Stardom

variety.com:

Murray Bartlett has been acting for 35 years, but it wasn’t until his turn as smiling and spiraling hotel manager Armond in HBO’s “The White Lotus” that Hollywood started buzzing about its new “breakout star.”“In the last year since ‘White Lotus,’ I’ve had more choice and more work than I’ve ever had,” the Australian actor tells Variety.The role earned him an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts prize and Critics’ Choice Award, but Bartlett’s career hasn’t always been a smooth journey. “There have been times where I haven’t worked much — sometimes long periods,” he says. “There were times when people told me, ‘You’re getting too old, you’re obviously not going to be super successful.’ And I did second guess myself.”In fact, he’s endured “existential crises” every four or five years: “I would say, ‘Is this really what I should be doing?’ And there were a few times along the way where I thought, ‘Maybe not.’”Growing up in Western Australia, Bartlett began auditioning while completing his final exams in high school.

In what sounds like a cliché from a movie, he recalls pondering life’s big questions while walking down to the beach one day.“I remember making that decision.

My exams were suffering because I wanted to be an actor and go to acting school. I wanted to give it a shot,” he says.Bartlett moved to the United States in 2000 and made waves a few years later playing a memorable Australian shoe importer in an episode of “Sex and the City.” In the years since, he made his mark as Dom on HBO’s “Looking” and Mouse on Netflix’s “Tales of the City” reboot, all while securing guest spots on such series as “White Collar,” “The Good Wife,” “Damages” and “Nashville.”As the pandemic hit and Bartlett, like the rest of.