Though he’s been acting regularly since the ’90s—and became every gay’s dream daddy with Looking—the 52-year-old performer had a major breakthrough in 2021 thanks to his role as put-upon hotel manager Armond in the first season of The White Lotus.
Since then, Bartlett’s career hasn’t let off the gas, following that up with season two of the totally ’80s dark comedy Physical, true-crime stripper tale Welcome To Chippendales, and one unforgettable episode of The Last Of Us. (Those latter two projects earned him Supporting Actor and Guest Actor Emmy nods, making him a double nominee this year.)
How about we take this to the next level?
Subscribe to our daily newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
And, after all that hard work, the man deserves a little vacation, no?
So, he’s headed off for another resort getaway. Only, this one happens to be at the Tranquillum House, a health and wellness retreat with some shady practices—and the setting for Hulu’s drama series, Nine Perfect Strangers.
After reporting that Bartlett was in talks to join the ensemble mystery this past summer, Variety has confirmed that he’ll headline its second season, opposite returning star—and fellow Aussie—Nicole Kidman.
Based off the best-selling Liane Moriarty novel, the first season of Nine Perfect Strangers saw Kidman’s curiously accented Masha welcome a group to her coastal resort, where guests were unknowingly drugged, secrets were revealed, and things got messy fast.
Details are sparse about the story this time around, so it remains unclear how Masha finds her way back to Tranquillum House, or what role Bartlett might play in all of it. All we know is that his character’s name is Brian, but who is Brian? A new guest with a shady past? A colleague of Masha’s with a shady past? The leader of a competing wellness retreat with a shady past? (Everyone in this show has a shady past!)
Regardless, we have our fingers crossed that the out actor will get to play a queer character. After all, the first season had the hunky Luke Evans playing a gay daddy journalist and rising nonbinary star Zoe Terakes as a resort employee, so Nine Perfect Strangers is certainly no stranger to LGBTQ+ representation.
“We are seeing a real evolution of that in terms of those queer intimate scenes that are actually intimate.”
But wait, there’s more: Variety also shares eight more stars who will be joining the cast this time around—and the list is a gag!
Fresh off the highly hyped second season of The Gilded Age, veritable icon Christine Baranski will be packing her bags for Tranquillum House alongside Ingmar Bergman muse Liv Ullmann, Annie “A Little Bit Alexis” Murphy of Schitt’s Creek fame, Triangle Of Sadness breakout Dolly De Leon (who loves hitting the bars with the gays), queer Kissing Booth star Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Turkish actor Aras Aydin, Transatlantic‘s Lucas Englander, and musician King Princess making her acting debut.
So, count’em up: Including Bartlett, that’s nine actors joining the Hulu drama—sounds like we have our nine perfect strangers! It’s looking like this season has the potential to be very, very gay.
And, yes, we did make sure to scope out the guys joining the cast to see if either of them might be playing a romantic interest for Bartlett’s character. Again, fingers crossed, though the jury’s still out on that. Either way, you can check them both out below:
Nine Perfect Strangers season two does not yet have a release date, but maybe we can expect it by end of 2024? Season one is available to stream on Hulu.
