Jason Isaacs Claims He Didn't Base His White Lotus Character Around Anyone from Southern Charm tram

Jason Isaacs is clarifying the origins of his White Lotus character's accent.

In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live radio show, the actor, 61, revealed that, contrary to what his costars have said, he did not base Timothy Ratliff on someone from Bravo's Southern Charm.

Isaacs explained that his character is from a different part of South Carolina that has an entirely different intonation in their accent than those from Charleston, where the reality series is filmed.

"I did not watch or base anything on anybody from Southern Charm," he told Cohen. "That's the end of that conversation — sorry."

In February, Sam Nivola, who plays Lochlan Ratliff, told PEOPLE that White Lotus creator Mike White suggested the Ratliff family actors study Southern Charm before filming began, and Isaacs confirmed this was true.

"At the beginning, he said, 'Here's a guy you might want to think about,'" he noted of Thomas Ravenel. "And I found out instantly, when reading the script, that I was from Durham, and I spoke to the world's best dialect coach, Liz Himelstein, and she went, 'Those accents are no use to you.'"

Instead of Southern Charm, Isaacs said he looked to politicians for his accent inspiration, and he learned a lot about how people in Durham talk.

"They have two vowel sounds," he said, which trace back to the colonial days. "Not everyone in Durham, not young people, but particularly Tim, who wants to sound like his grandfather, and who lives in the town where there are statues to his relatives, where he's got a wing of the university named after him."

"There are two vowel sounds," he continued. "One is the short R sound and the other is the tip of the tongue O sound. And that is pretty unique to Durham."

Cameran Eubanks, who starred in the early seasons of Southern Charm, shared a similar sentiment on her Instagram Stories when The White Lotus first premiered.

“Many of yall are echoing what I thought as soon as I heard the dad speak. ‘Damn, he sounds like Thomas Ravenel!’” she wrote. “That dialect is NOT North Carolina. It’s old Charleston.”

She later explained her knowledge of Southern accents: “Lots of messages asking what the difference is between a Charleston accent and the Old Charleston accent.”

“Well, there really is no such thing as current Charleston dialect because now more Northerners live here than Southerners 🤣BUT the old Charleston English is still clinging on to a few,” she continued. “I’ll put the Wikipedia definition on the next page.”

“Also, fun fact- Thomas was the ONLY original cast member who was born and bred in Charleson,” Eubanks added. “I am from the upstate of South Carolina and our dialect is a lot more twangy and less refined 😜”

She followed up her posts with specific guidelines of what makes a true Charleston accent, such as “R-dropping” and adding an “intrusive y into the ar sound.”