Jason Isaacs almost lost out on his role in 'The White Lotus'.

While the 61-year-old actor won a host of new fans after playing Timothy Ratcliff in the third series of the HBO drama, he admitted that his own poor auditioning skills almost led to him missing out.

Speaking to Schön! Magazine, he said: "Because I don't normally audition, I was the same bumbling, stuttering, insecure fool that I had been for the first 10 years of my career."

However, he did go on to land the role, which required him to spend months filming in Thailand, with long separations from his family.

Jason said: "I'm not looking to build a career. I'm not looking to be anything that I'm not.

"I just want to keep having an interesting time at work. Any time I can be on the same continent [as my family], my heart just settles a bit."

Meanwhile, Jason recently reflected on an emotional scene in the season three finale when his character contemplated a murder-suicide and even poured out poisoned pina coladas for Timothy and his wife, son and daughter.

Timothy poured the drinks - meant for himself, Victoria (Parker Posey), Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) - away at the last second, but the next morning his other son Lochlan (Sam Nivola) made a smoothie using the remaining poisonous seeds, only to be revived in his father's arms.

Jason told CNN: "[I was] unbelievably sad. People think that acting is pretending, but it's not, really.

"You just have to be someone else in a different situation, and I tried, as much as I could, to be someone who thought the only way out -- who's also drugged out of his mind -- of that shame is to kill everybody that he loves. It just made me very miserable watching it again."

Jason's character hit rock bottom after trying to keep his money laundering scheme a secret from his loved ones.

He said: "That was one of the saddest things I've ever done.

"When I read the script, I thought, 'I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can convincingly believe myself that I would ever do that.'"