Alabama actor with severe phobia bitten by snake while filming ‘White Lotus:’ ‘It was horrific’

Alabama’s Walton Goggins had a short visit to the hospital recently when he got on the bad side of a snake used in a scene for his popular HBO series “The White Lotus.”

The snake bit Goggins during filming of episode three and the show’s third season, which is set and filmed in Thailand.

While the snake wasn’t venomous and Goggins was not seriously hurt, he told Jimmy Kimmel that it took him a while to recover mentally. “It was horrific,” Goggins said when he was a guest on Kimmel’s show Wednesday.

Goggins explained he is terrified of the slithering reptiles and began to cry the first time he held one during filming, according to a clip from Kimmel’s show (You can watch it below).

“I don’t just have a phobia, it’s like a missing link when it comes to snakes,” Goggins told Kimmel. “There’s something, like, genetically wrong with me when it comes to snakes.”

Still, he was ready to face his fears and film the episode, in which he is attempting to release the snakes from captivity. As he grabbed a snake in its cage, it bit him.

“I wish I could have been cool, you know. Like I fancy myself a pretty cool guy, like, ‘Hey yeah, I got a snake bite,’” he said in an offhand manner with a shrug. “This was my reaction, I swear to God …” Goggins says as his voice becomes high and panicky, “‘Oh my God, I’ve been bit by a snake! Oh my God!”

Goggins said he continued shooting that day but was told the next day by a producer he should go to the hospital as a precaution. He was treated with a shot and released.

Birmingham-born Goggins, known for portraying offbeat characters in TV shows and films, is currently portraying Rick Hatchett on HBO’s “The White Lotus,” an anthology show described on IMDb as “a sharp social satire following the exploits of various guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose stay becomes affected by their various dysfunctions.”

Goggins is best known for playing Boyd Crowder on “Justified,” Baby Billy Freeman on “The Righteous Gemstones” and The Ghoul in “Fallout.”