Total Knockout: Arnas Fedaravičius is set to steal the spotlight in ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3

Arnas Fedaravičius is a boxer. The real deal: gloves, mouthguards, speed bags and gritty basements. So when it comes to the 33-year-old’s ‘day job’ of acting, he knows how to roll with the punches, good or bad. Right now, he’s throwing a knockout punch – what he calls “the dream job”: checking in at HBO’s The White Lotus.

It’s a career high that has brought a slew of surreal moments with it, including this Vogue debut. Early on the morning of our cover shoot in Stockholm, Fedaravičius sits calmly in his own black T-shirt and straight-cut jeans, closing his eyes as his dark curls are gently dried and diffused, his slightly unkempt nails filed and moisturised. In this specific moment on set, there’s the sense he’s not just preparing for the day ahead, but also for everything to soon change – as it likely will as the series’ feverishly-anticipated third installation drops today.

“Ecstatic. Ecstatic is the word,” says Lithuanian-born Fedaravičius when asked of his reaction to landing the job. After two award-laden seasons set in Hawaii and Sicily, this time round the simmering The White Lotus series has touched down in Thailand. Fedaravičius steps into the ring with a star-studded cast as the heartthrob Russian expat Valentin, a health mentor on staff at the titular resort, wielding spa menus and towels in place of the swords and daggers of his past fantasy castings.

Like the two seasons before it, the show’s eight-episode run is delivering on its standard caustic satire and crescendoing drama. But according to creator Mike White, it will be “longer, bigger, crazier” – which, for Fedaravičius, meant a mighty six months of production in Thailand. Needless to say, there were nerves on arrival. “I had a 16-hour journey with lay-overs, and then arrived and was put into the Four Seasons – like, ‘OK, this is my view for the next couple of months’. I was so nervous and just focusing on my lines,” he recalls. But it was White himself who put Fedaravičius at ease. “He came to my villa and he’s like, ‘Hi!’” he says, uncannily mimicking White’s higher-pitched twang. “Instantly, I felt like, ‘Oh, this is going to be great’.”

Previous seasons drew millions of viewers week-to-week, making The White Lotus not just a “dream job” but a moment of mass exposure. “It hasn’t dawned on me yet,” Fedaravičius says of the forthcoming spotlight. “But every now and then, while doing the show, the thought would come to me on set like, ‘Wow, this is a pretty big thing we’re doing here’.”

He describes an intimate atmosphere on set, intensified by the fact that he and his fellow actors were staying at the hotel, while playing people staying at the hotel. There was a sense of close camaraderie, but Fedaravičius wasn’t immune to feeling starstruck – especially when working opposite the trio of powerhouse actors that his character becomes tied up with: Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon and Leslie Bibb. “I look up to them and respect them all so much,” he says. “To be meeting these really good actors is one thing, but then to be doing your job, and they’re looking right at you – it’s strange.” Inevitably, there were some jitters during the first scene they filmed. “In this scene, I walk up to them, presenting hotel options – so it’s already a stage within a stage, plus cameras. As we started the take, I felt my leg wobbling. I’m like, OK, I’m alive, that’s good, but now is not the time!”

Once the nerves were squashed, Fedaravičius developed a sense of mentorship from his fellow cast members, who openly shared their wisdom throughout the course of the production, from self-tape tips to book recommendations on the craft of acting. He also praises working under White’s genius creative direction, noting it often felt like “he had written something from the future, and we were just trying to bring it to life on set”, with a laugh, adding, “I sometimes thought, ‘Mike, where are you getting this from? Are you channeling?’”

With White writing and directing every episode, Fedaravičius found a refreshing lack of hierarchy on set. “If you had a question or a creative idea, you could bring it to him, it’s very liberating. And there was something we were all aiming for: if you heard Mike laugh during the take, that’s good,” he says, adding an affectionate imitation of White’s cackle.

Just as boxing demands as much mental discipline as physical, it’s clear Fedaravičius brings a sharp focus to his working experiences. Staying at the Four Seasons for months on end, with everything from daily turn-down service to pillow menus, he became painfully conscious of how easy it is to get used to luxuries – the very lifestyle that the series critiques. “One time, I had an overwhelming urge to just pick up a broom, to do something – like I wanted to mop the floors,” he says. It became a frequent topic of conversation with his co-stars, though he admits the indulgences were special while they lasted. “They bought out entire venues and hotels for us, so when we’d switch to one that wasn’t bought out, we’d have a running joke amongst us like, ‘Who are these people?’ ‘Who are these people at the gym that I don’t know?’” he says, re-enacting the faux disgust.

It’s this clear-sighted way of Fedaravičius’ – coupled up with his charisma and looks – that earned him a spot in Boss’ latest Bodywear campaign. On the surface, there’s the image shared to his social channels: Fedaravičius, topless in the boxing studio, his gauze-wrapped hands hanging from his belt loops, an assault of abdominals on display. But behind it, there’s his deep consideration of what the ‘Be Your Own Boss’ message means to him. “I think that, no matter what we do in life, there’s one thing that we can be the boss of, and that’s our own thoughts,” he says. “That’s the one thing that we have agency over. And no matter what happens, we can make those thoughts serve us – and, hopefully, serve others in a positive way. It’s like that kind of cliché saying, ‘How you do anything is how you do everything’.”

Fedaravičius managed to squeeze in some downtime while in Thailand, touring neighbouring Cambodia with his girlfriend, actor Emeraude Toubia. Other times, when the idea of exploring more of the region came up, the comforts of the Four Seasons won out. “Sometimes we wanted to, but we’re already at the Four Seasons, so…” he laughs. Yet after savouring the luxuries which the The White Lotus shoot allowed, he closed out the project as only a disciplined mind would: with a 4AM call time for an “insane workout” with a professional Muay Thai boxer, the morning after wrapping.

Fedaravičius managed to squeeze in some downtime while in Thailand, touring neighbouring Cambodia with his girlfriend, actor Emeraude Toubia. Other times, when the idea of exploring more of the region came up, the comforts of the project's creature comforts won out. “Sometimes we wanted to, but we’re already at the Four Seasons, so…” he laughs. Yet after savouring the luxuries which the The White Lotus shoot allowed, he closed out the project as only a disciplined mind would: with a 4am call time for an “insane workout” with a professional Muay Thai boxer, the morning after wrapping.

His next dream role? Not in the boxing ring, but on horseback. “I’ve always wanted to be in a Western,” Fedaravičius says. “They don’t make those films so much anymore, but my dad always tells me, ‘When I see you on a horse with a six-shooter, I can die happy.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright, no pressure.’” For now, he’s focused on what’s in front of him. “I’d love to dive into more comedy, improve my craft, and I haven’t been on stage yet – something I’d love to do eventually,” he shares. “Every audition is an opportunity to practice and get better. And who knows, one day I might just end up on that horse. Bang bang!”