Leslie Bibb Reacts to Husband Sam Rockwell's Wild 'White Lotus' Speech

"The White Lotus" actor Leslie Bibb told Andy Cohen that the hit series' new season is encapsulated in a stunning monologue by her partner, Sam Rockwell, in an unforgettable turn on the show.

Rockwell's cameo in Episode 5 is brief but searing: He appears as Frank, an acquaintance of Walton Goggins' Rick, who has come to the luxury resort chain's Thailand location on a mission of revenge. When Rick has to follow his quarry to Bangkok, he looks Frank up for help, but discovers – in a riveting scene that interrogates the nature of gender and sexuality – that his old pal is no longer quite the same man he once thought he knew.

In an unvarnished explanation worthy of his name, Frank tells Rick about the sexual exploration – and evolution – that allowed him to embrace his own nature, stop drinking, and become a more fulfilled (if not necessarily better) person.

After wondering about his "insatiable" sexual appetites, Frank has come to the conclusion that, "Maybe, maybe what I really want is to be" a woman, he admits to a startled Rick. A crucial component of his shift: Bangkok's transgender sex workers.

Appearing on "Watch What Happens Live," Bibb told Cohen that she had gone over Frank's lines with Rockwell after a change in the cast led to his "very last minute" addition.

Rockwell was working in South Africa at the time, and, Bibb said, "He was not sure about doing it just because he didn't have proper prep time."

But Bibb – who plays Kate, one of a trio of female friends, in the new season – had a solution.

"So we went on safari in South Africa," she told Cohen, "and I was like, 'I'll get you off book. I'll get you off book.'"

"Bibb had previously talked about Rockwell's monologue," Deadline recalled, "telling CBS Mornings, 'I read all eight [episodes] and I remember when I got to this monologue and this scene and I remember thinking, "I've never seen anything like this on television," and I felt like it's what Mike [White] was really trying to talk about with this show ... He comes in and he's like, "Here's my truth" and he's unapologetic.'"

Bibb related the struggles that the rage-consumed Rick contends with to the arcs of her own character, along with those of co-stars Carrie Coon and Michelle Monaghan. The three friends vacillate from half-hearted expressions of support to vicious gossip behind each others' backs.

"I feel like if the women just came in and did what Frank did and [had] been like, 'Hey, this is what's happening in my life. I'm having problems with my marriage, I'm drinking too much, I'm doing this,' whatever, they wouldn't be gossiping about each other because they would immediately put the shield down and be vulnerable," Deadline quoted Bibb as saying.

Calling Rockwell's monologue "iconic," Bibb opined that the five-minute scene is "really what the whole season is about," and the crux of writer-director Mike White's message in the new clutch of episodes, which examine suffering and identity along with the series' broader satirizing of clueless rich people.

Watch Bibb's comments to Cohen below.