Aimee Lou Wood explains why she felt ‘ugly’ after White Lotus discovery
Actress Aimee Lou Wood has said that after hearing that The White Lotus creator Mike White had “fought” to cast her, she couldn’t help but feel “ugly” and spiral into believing that the production company HBO didn’t want her.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the finale of The White Lotus season three
Wood plays Mancunian yoga teacher Chelsea in the new season of The White Lotus, a fan favourite who tragically died alongside her older boyfriend, Rick (Walton Goggins), in Monday’s season finale.
She was told that show creator Mike White had said she had to play Chelsea, no matter what HBO said. Wood said despite her knowing that the comment was “from the nicest place”, internally it made her doubt her appearance.
She told GQ that she thought: “Mike had to say ‘Please let me have the ugly girl!’”
Wood has also spoken about how she feels that her physical appearance can distract from her work, with viewers often commenting on her teeth, instead of her acting.
She said: “It makes me really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit. The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work. They think it’s nice because they’re not criticising.”
Wood continued to say: “I don’t know if it was a man would we be talking about it this much? It’s still going on about a woman’s appearance.”
The actress is no stranger to being in the spotlight or to appearing in explicit scenes after playing Aimee in Netflix series Sex Education, however she has described feeling “exposed” during the first season of the hit show, as “no one else in the main cast actually went to the extremes” that she did.
During The White Lotus filming, however, Wood said she relied on support and advice from her female co-stars, Michelle Monaghan and Carrie Coon. A private dinner between the three, where they discussed “whether nudity made sense for their storylines”, made her feel much more comfortable than she had in Sex Education.
