Aimee Lou Wood stepped out of her comfort zone and upped sticks to Thailand for seven months in order to film the new series of The White Lotus. The Sex Education actress admits that her travels usually only take her as far as the West Country, but the opportunity to appear in the third series of the hotel-set dark comedy drama was too good to miss. “I’m one of the least adventurous people in the world,” she says. “My adventures are to places like Cornwall and Glastonbury. But having this job means that I was pushed to leave my comfort zone, which is good for me.”.
“It was so beautiful, beyond beautiful, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was so hard to even process and fathom that it was real. I would wake up, open my curtains and see actual paradise,” Aimee adds. “I’m so grateful because I probably never would have taken myself to Thailand, and I would have missed out on an experience that was so special. I’m so glad that I got this job and had this experience, because it forces me to explore more, and I need a bit of forcing.”.
Aimee was a huge fan of the first two series of the show. “I am an absolute super fan,” she laughs. “I was always wondering where I could fit into the White Lotus world because I wanted to be in it. And then I got the audition [to play] Chelsea, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this actually could be it!’ But I was so scared, because I’d never had the experience of auditioning for something that I was already a fan of. I did my audition, then a couple of days later, I was called back, and the day after that, I found out.".
“If it had stretched over a long amount of time, I would have gone mad. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life – I was out with my friends, I went to the loo, checked my phone and there was a message. I’d got the part. It was the best moment ever.”. Now, in the latest series exploring the lives of staff and guests at the White Lotus, Aimee stars as Chelsea, a young woman from Manchester who arrives at the Thai resort with her older American boyfriend, Rick, played by Fallout ’s Walton Goggins. The other guests include a trio of long time friends on a girls’ trip (played by Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan) and a family led by parents Timothy and Victoria (Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey).
The cast took up residence at the Four Seasons hotel, which doubled as the White Lotus, living at the place where they were filming for half of last year. And according to Aimee, it made for an odd experience. “The negative, which also makes it so good I think, is the claustrophobic nature of living where you’re filming,” she explains. “There’s no separation. Usually when you’re filming away, you get in a car at the end and you go home to your own space, whereas that is not the case with The White Lotus. It’s seven months of living on a set. It feels exactly like The Truman Show.”.
She explains that while it makes filming something of a challenge, it is in keeping with show creator Mike White’s vision for the series. “Mike draws so much of his inspiration from reality TV and a lot of it leaks in. He loves that kind of documentary feel,” Aimee says. “I think it helps the show that everyone is in such close proximity and you can’t escape. It means you make the deepest connections.”.
There is a downside, however. “The flip side of the coin is there is a bit of a loss of self,” she admits. “At one point, I was having my hair done and the stylist asked halfway through, ‘Am I chatting to Aimee or Chelsea?’ and I said, ‘I don’t even know any more.’ You become a White Lotus guest – because you are living there – so the lines get so blurred. I didn’t even know who I was, I think I was saying some of my lines as myself, it was all getting so confused. But I think that is part of what makes the show so great, so it’s a positive and a negative at the same time.”.
Aimee, 30, describes her character, Chelsea, as a “misfit” who isn’t a typical White Lotus guest. While noting that filming the breakfast and dinner scenes with Walton Goggins were among her favourite moments, she also loved a scene in the first episode where her character strikes up a friendship with a strange woman at the hotel bar. “That’s very me,” she says. “I always have the dream that this holiday friendship will carry on for ever. But that’s the thing with holiday friends, isn’t it? It’s there for a time, but when you try to carry it into the real world, it doesn’t work.
“I love the way Chelsea just sees this girl, and she’s like, ‘We’re gonna be mates.’ She is absolutely determined to make this cool girl her friend, and I love that about her.”. Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter,Facebook, YouTubeand Threads. She explains that while it makes filming something of a challenge, it is in keeping with show creator Mike White’s vision for the series. “Mike draws so much of his inspiration from reality TV and a lot of it leaks in. He loves.
