The guts and soul of The White Lotus Season 3 is undoubtedly Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wooden), an ethereal Mancunian with offbeat model, hilarious facial expressions, and an timeless devotion to her older boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins). Whereas different characters on the HBO hit are drawn by creator/author/director Mike White as merciless, egocentric, or blind to their very own privilege, Chelsea is the uncommon White Lotus visitor who is good, caring, and completely absorbing the luxurious expertise. She’s precisely who we’d all need to hang around with on the White Lotus pool — and the identical may very well be mentioned of the actress who brings her to life.
Aimee Lou Wooden first popped for TV followers as Aimee Gibbs on the raunchy Netflix hit Intercourse Schooling. Since profitable a BAFTA for her hilarious and heartfelt work on that present, Wooden has gone on to look in movies like The Electrical Lifetime of Louis Wain and Residing and reveals like Poisonous City. The White Lotus, nonetheless, has seemingly boosted her profile into the stratosphere, incomes her Emmys buzz and sparking rumors that she could be in line to affix web boyfriends Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan, and Joseph Quinn in Sam Mendes’s upcoming quartet of Beatles biopics.
Proper now, although, Wooden continues to be targeted on all issues Chelsea. “She’s an attention-grabbing type of contradiction as a result of she does look like this free spirit, however she’s additionally stubbornly residing below this mindset that all the pieces’s written and all the pieces’s fated and all the pieces is decided,” Wooden thoughtfully advised DECIDER when she stopped by our studio this week.
“Which is similar to Rick. Rick appears like he can’t assist what’s occurring. He doesn’t have any selection,”she mentioned. “He doesn’t have any free will.”
During the last seven weeks, The White Lotus followers have watched the upbeat Chelsea do her finest to tug Rick out of his black gap of nihilism with all the pieces from cuddles to her religion within the cosmos. In final week’s episode, Rick might need lastly discovered zen on his personal by confronting actual property mogul Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), a person he blames for killing his do-gooder father and dooming him for all times. In a preview of this weekend’s White Lotus finale, we see an extremely involved Chelsea beg her lover to not do “any silly.” It’s a tense warning that Rick and Chelsea’s saga is much from over.
Forward of this Sunday’s White Lotus Season 3 finale, we chatted with Aimee Lou Wooden about all issues Chelsea, Rick, astrology, fan theories and extra…
DECIDER: So I like Chelsea. I like how whenever you meet her, she’s a completely fashioned individual with a persona that’s all her personal Nevertheless, we don’t actually know rather a lot about her apart from the truth that she was a yoga trainer, she’s from Manchester, there’s a brother… Who do you assume she was earlier than she landed in Rick’s orbit?
AIMEE LOU WOOD: It’s so attention-grabbing that you simply carry that up as a result of I’ve been pondering rather a lot about how a lot of a deflector Chelsea is. As a result of she’s very one finger pointing, three pointing again with Rick. She’s like, “You’re so mysterious. You’re so exhausting to learn.” And truly, she could be very guarded and a thriller herself. You recognize, she does a number of discovering her id by means of exterior means, i.e. Rick, astrology, enneagrams. It’s attention-grabbing.
She’s an attention-grabbing type of contradiction as a result of she does look like this free spirit, however she’s additionally stubbornly residing below this mindset that all the pieces’s written and all the pieces’s fated and all the pieces is decided. So it’s like she’s free while additionally being extremely type of cussed about this fated, written existence that she doesn’t have a selection in. It’s like, “I don’t have a selection right here. Rick’s my soulmate. There’s no selection.” Which is similar to Rick. Rick appears like he can’t assist what’s occurring. He doesn’t have any selection. He doesn’t have any free will. His life was written out for him by this fateful occasion that occurred when he was a child. So they’re really fairly related in that means.
And so I believe she’s an actual bundle of contradictions. I believe she’s very herself, while additionally being extremely, not fully-realized on her personal. You recognize, she’s very a lot type of taken it on [that] her life’s mission is him. I believe that’s what a number of anxious, connected individuals do, but it surely’s really extremely avoidant as a result of it signifies that you don’t even have to have a look at your individual stuff. I’ve been saying rather a lot at the moment, intimacy is “into me see,” and he or she doesn’t. She likes to be the “see-er.” She doesn’t notably like being seen.
So I’ve bought an entire type of backstory for Chelsea that I additionally stored very secret as a result of I believe that Mike needs her to really feel like this type of ethereal factor that’s simply turned up, you understand? And I believe that she’s extremely sensible in the best way that she makes out like she’s very susceptible and sincere and revealing herself always.
One factor that I assumed was actually attention-grabbing about Chelsea and Rick is that regardless of all of the hedonism round them, neither of them have cheated on one another all through this week. What do you make of that and do you assume it says one thing about their connection?
I believe they’re extremely loyal to one another. I believe that’s a part of their drawback in a means. It’s like one thing that’s extremely lovely in a technique and romantic, but additionally on the flip facet of that’s, once more, this certain factor that I ponder if Chelsea did imagine in free will and in selection, whether or not she would select this life for herself of type of desirous to rescue. She’s bought a large rescue advanced fantasy factor happening.
However I believe rather a lot about Esther Perel’s speaking about “splitting the ambivalence.” So what a number of {couples} do is, one individual takes up one facet of utter certainty and it pushes the opposite individual to be totally uncertain. Truly, more often than not, we’re someplace within the center. And I believe, Rick and Chelsea are literally, in actuality, someplace in center. I believe he actually fairly loves her and I believe she in all probability has a wholesome quantity of doubt. However each of them are appearing out the extremes they usually type of want to satisfy within the center.
I believe that, you understand, actions converse louder than phrases they usually don’t cheat on one another. They don’t stray as a result of there’s something actual there, however they’re type of enjoying out an influence dynamic. I simply assume that they simply want to seek out one another within the center.
That’s actually attention-grabbing as a result of I haven’t seen the finale — we’re not getting it forward of time — however I’ve seen the preview for the finale and I seen that there’s a pair attention-grabbing pictures. Such as you type of look extra nervous than you have got all season and he appears to be like happier than he’s been all season. Then, after we consider final week, Chelsea’s remark concerning the yin and the yang and type of turmoil. Is there now gonna be a flip in that type of tonal relationship between Rick and Chelsea now that he’s discovered this zen?
Effectively, precisely! That is the factor. It’s like the 2 sides of the coin. It’s hope and ache. And so, yeah, in these sorts of relationships, the place it’s so type of black and white, it does flip. I believe that possibly when Rick is hopeful, Chelsea has to take up the ache quota. So there’s a type of flipping round that’s too excessive and they should simply discover the nuance and the center floor and the grey. However yeah, I imply, rather a lot occurs in [Episode] 8. Quite a bit occurs. It’s 90 minutes lengthy and there’s nonetheless a lot story left. And I believe that Chelsea and Rick’s, you understand, it’ll shock individuals.
Shifting gears, I need to ask about final week’s episode. The scene wherein your character is listening and reacting to Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) and Saxon’s (Patrick Schwarzenegger) dialog about whether or not or not they’ll do one thing to assist “Gary” (Jon Gries) out. Your face is so superbly expressive, it’s superb to observe. What was it like watching that scene play out and have you ever been amused by any of the social chatter about how nice your response pictures are?
I’ve cherished individuals placing my face and Walton’s subsequent to one another and being like, “These two have simply been listening to probably the most loopy shit since they’ve been in Thailand.” And yeah, that’s my favourite appearing. My favourite scenes to do is once I simply get to not converse and I get to pay attention and reply. However I don’t know what my face is doing a number of the time. So then, persons are like, “Your face is so expressive and humorous!” It’s like, “I didn’t assume I used to be being humorous.”
However yeah, these are my favourite scenes to do and it was the perfect. Actually, the most effective issues to observe was Patrick’s meltdown. When he began appearing like there have been mosquitoes touchdown on him and tapping them away, and he was frantic. There was one take the place he like knocked over his water. He drank and it spilled throughout him. And I used to be similar to, “This boy is so good. He’s such actor.” So a number of, I believe, Chelsea’s faces are additionally simply, “Wow.” It’s Aimee watching them do actually good appearing.
You talked about Patrick. I noticed that you simply put in your Instagram tales how they’re each, you imagine, Aries and that’s the reason they type of battle, however why there’s some type of you understand a connection there. Do you assume there’s any circumstance, any world, the place they could have a deeper connection have been it not for Rick?
Yeah, I believe that his conditioning and his upbringing has made him into this factor that looks like the antithesis of Chelsea, however really at their core, they’re each extremely passionate, pushed, decided. They each have that tunnel imaginative and prescient factor. They each love their mottos and their aphorisms and all the pieces like that. I believe they’re really extra related than they appear on the floor. And I believe that he does actually like being seen by her. Even when it’s brutal honesty, he’s like, “Give me extra. Give me extra. Give me extra.”
Truly, I believe that he does need to see her and join along with her and he or she type of bats him away. I believe it’s such a tremendous picture of her chucking the books at him as a result of the best way that she blocks individuals is with spirituality. So she’s like, “Go away, right here’s some stuff about spirituality. Go away.” So it’s like this bizarre type of contradiction once more.
However yeah, I believe in one other life, I believe Chelsea and Saxon, with completely different circumstances, may have been one thing. Yeah, I believe that it’s only a tragedy that they’ve clearly simply been conditioned in such other ways and Saxon has, you understand, a number of it isn’t nice.
Yeah, additionally on the astrology beat, there’s a very humorous second the place Rick is like, “Effectively we’re not suitable since you’re an Aries and I’m a Scorpio.” Do you intuit that there’s some type of placements on their charts that type of do overlap and what do you assume they’re?
So I’m a Scorpio Moon in actual life, and I relate to Chelsea a lot that I assumed she have to be a Scorpio Moon. So in my head, she is a Scorpio Moon and a Pisces Rising. So I believe that she will come throughout, she’s type of dreamy and candy, after which she’s there with simply the hearth of like, “You’re bald! You’re soulless! You might be this.” She’s really extremely sincere and that’s her Aries popping out. So I believe she appears watery after which she simply burns.
However I do assume that the Scorpio Moon with Rick’s Scorpio Solar is the soul tie. It’s the solar and the moon bond. That’s superb, but it surely can be actually extremely intense and too intense.
I do know that everybody within the solid’s having one million theories hurled at them. Is there one particularly that you simply actually like, even when it’s completely off base?
The issues that I like probably the most are when individuals pick an merchandise of clothes or a bit of jewellery they usually analyze the hell out of it they usually say what it symbolizes. I’m such an English lit geek, so I like all of that type of evaluation, even when it’s actually unsuitable. I’m like, “The argument you’ve simply offered is great and that may very well be true.”
However I believe the funniest one to me was that the monkeys did it. That was actually… And I like that Michelle simply got here out and mentioned, “No, they didn’t. It isn’t the monkeys. The monkey doesn’t get the gun.” So I believe that one was in all probability my favourite.
Additionally I simply wrapped on a TV present and the man who performed my granddad got here in with all these theories. And I used to be like, “Phil, you would not be extra unsuitable.” There was one, he thought that Saxon and Chelsea have been working collectively. They have been con artists they usually have been appearing like they didn’t know one another, however actually they have been conning Rick out of this, and I used to be like, “No. No! That isn’t what’s occuring.” However there’s been masses.
Clearly this superb journey is coming to an finish this weekend. Are you able to give us a preview of what’s subsequent for you? As a result of there are people who find themselves like actually hoping, they’re type of fancasting you as Pattie Boyd within the Beatles motion pictures, for example. Are you able to give any hints about apart from your present within the UK, what’s subsequent within the docket?
I’m gonna do a movie and I’m very a lot trying ahead to going extra into movie. As a result of I really feel like I’ve achieved a number of TV they usually’re all the time very lengthy journeys and oftentimes they’re left open-ended. I’m very excited to do like, “Starting, center, finish, achieved!” in six weeks. So I’m going extra in direction of movies. I’ve bought a TV present popping out. I’ve a TV present that I wrote, which is about movies. So, yeah, there’s thrilling, beautiful issues developing, however I believe I’m achieved with TV for a bit.
This interview has been condensed and edited for readability.
