Aimee Lou Wood is already a household name, with her breakthrough role in Netflix series Sex Education shooting her to stardom – and earning her a BAFTA award in the process. And in the years since, her star has risen to stratospheric levels – starring in Oscar nominated drama Living, as well as her critically acclaimed stage performances in Uncle Vanya and Cabaret. Fast-forward to 2025, and she is starring in the most highly-anticipated release of the year: The White Lotus season three.
The show’s “supersized” third season is set in Koh Samui, Thailand, seeing a new roster of dysfunctional guests arrive at the notorious White Lotus hotel. And while the 30-year-old actress is a self-confessed super-fan of the hit Mike White series, she explains that she never saw herself fitting into the ‘White Lotus world’ until reading for the part of Chelsea – an experience that she describes as “cosmic”.
I catch up with Aimee five months after filming for season three has wrapped. Miles from the tropical paradise of Koh Samui, we meet on a rainy January afternoon at London’s Corinthia Hotel. It also happens to be the very same day that The White Lotus has been picked up for a fourth season, and the excitement around us is electric as we sit down to chat.
As you would expect from her on-screen performances, Aimee is sunshine personified and greets me as though we’re old friends. While I’m desperate to dig for spoilers, at the time of the interview the secret plots of the upcoming season are still under lock and key. Instead, we talk about her White Lotus experience behind the scenes, from the seven month shoot on location in Thailand and her out-of-control coconut addiction, to the cast members who have now become family.
The White Lotus is such a phenomenon – was it something you always wanted to be a part of?
I’m a proper fan of The White Lotus – I loved the first two seasons. And this was the first time I’ve ever been in something that I’ve been a fan of beforehand, so that was a weird feeling. I have always really wanted to be in it, but I just didn’t know where I fit – I just couldn’t see myself in it at all. So when I got the audition for Chelsea, it felt quite cosmic, and that this could actually be it. The first thing I even had to say in the audition, I thought ‘Oh that’s me’ and so it did feel quite special. I really wanted to work with Mike and I wanted to experience that level of writing and how genius it is, but I just couldn’t see myself in it before. So, it’s such a gift that there was someone that I could be in that world.
Talk me through your filming experience…
We were filming in Thailand for seven months, and it was amazing and hard. There was a lot of homesickness and there was a lot of loss of self because you don’t have your anchor points. I was like, who am I again? But the connections I made were so deep and so special. I got to see things that I never ever thought I would see and experience things that I never thought I would experience. I’m only just processing it now – it’s just sinking in. And I’m like, that was incredible, but it did get to a point where I needed to go home.
Did the experience of being on location make you closer as a cast?
I mean, we were all staying in the hotels we were filming at so it really was a social experiment. It was like being on The Truman Show or Big Brother – it’s full on and it’s quite claustrophobic. There’s no separation between set and home, and you are just walking to your hotel room every night, so we were all a very dysfunctional, lovely family, and we were so close because we had to be – we had to kind of create home within each other. But it was a very singular experience, and I’ll never have an experience like that again. Because even if you’re filming away, you always get a car back to your own space, and there was none of that here. It was ‘that’s a wrap’, then walk five steps and I’m back in my hotel room, and can still see the crew outside. It was just like The Truman Show, and all I kept thinking the whole way through was, ‘I am Jim Carrey’.
There is a White Lotus WhatsApp group, and all of us still chat. Leslie [Bibb] and I still speak every day, because it was really hard leaving each other at the end, when we had become so close. But also it was weird for me because I’m so far away. Everyone else went back to LA or New York, so people have hung out since, and I was like ‘bye everyone – I’m going back to England now!’ I kind of didn’t think about that when it was happening – that they would all still be able to see each other, but Patrick [Schwarzenegger] has been really good with it. Like, whenever he sees anyone from the cast, he’ll be like ‘hey Aimee, I saw Nick today!’ He tries to keep me in the loop and is like ‘why don’t you come to LA?’, which is really sweet because I think he knows ‘she probably feels left out over there’. So, it will be a big reunion at the premiere.
The White Lotus has a mindful focus this year – how would you fare on a digital detox?
I have just deactivated my Instagram and I feel so smug. I’ve done it for like five days now, and I’m like ‘I feel like a different person’. But I think I would do scarily well on a digital detox – if I could never reply to anything ever again, I would. But that’s risky for me – I have to have some kind of contact and connection to the real world.
Do you have a top mindfulness tip?
I’m terrible at mindfulness, and I need to get better at it. My friend has actually just taught me that thing where you breathe in and block one nostril, and that one helps! She said I should do that for five minutes before I ever make a scary decision because I need to stop making decisions when I’m in fight or flight. I’ll just be like ‘yes’ or I’ll detonate something, and she’s been telling me to pause. I need to ‘pause action until serenity enters’, and do a bit of breathing.
Where is your go-to travel destination?
My go-to travel destination is Cornwall – I just love it so much, Fowey specifically. I know it’s not very adventurous, but I just have a weird pull to Cornwall. It’s so chill, and I just love having crab rolls on the beach. I also went to Lisbon recently and I loved it there. It felt quite like home which is weird, but yeah Cornwall is where I would go.
What was your favourite Thai dish?
I mean just Thai food in general is pretty amazing – it’s so hearty and flavoursome. But my addiction out there was Thai coconuts – they get fresh coconuts out of the trees, cut off the tops and put in a straw, and I couldn’t get enough of them. It was full on, and at one point I was like, am I making myself ill? I don’t think I’m supposed to have this much coconut water! People kept telling me, ‘Aimee Lou, you’re having a lot of coconut!’ as if it was some really risky thing, but it was becoming a problem. I couldn’t go five minutes without a coconut!
Which past White Lotus character would you go on holiday with?
It would have to be Tanya just for the experience, even though it would be hell because she’s so needy. I feel like I could get somewhere with Tanya though. I feel like we could get into some good stuff – get into the weeds, but it wouldn’t be a relaxing holiday. It would be work, and definitely an experience. But also if I wanted a fun holiday, I would go away with Mia and Lucia.
Can you describe this season of The White Lotus in three words?
I would say it’s cosmic, confronting and deep.
The White Lotus launches on Sky and streaming service NOW on Monday 17th February.