Sex scenes on White Lotus weren’t scariest part, says Aimee Lou Wood as she reveals what Americans think about her teeth
AS one of our hottest stars Aimee Lou Wood has a knack for clinching roles that audiences love. And her unconventional looks have won her a legion of fans.
The Stockport-born actress, who first found fame in Netflix smash Sex Education, is currently starring in the streaming giant’s drama, Toxic Town, and Sky juggernaut The White Lotus.
The 31-year-old is also back filming the second series of Daddy Issues — the biggest comedy to launch on BBC Three since it first aired in 2022.
But despite her confidence in taking on, and nailing, a hugely diverse range of roles, she admits there was one White Lotus scene that left her feeling “nervous” . . . filming around the pool in her red bikini.
Aimee, who has previously admitted to struggling with body dysmorphia when she was younger, said of filming in Thailand: “I was more nervous about bikinis than sex scenes.
“I was more worried about just being around the pool because I feel like that’s when you’re thinking more about how you look.
“Whereas . . . in an intimate scene, it’s about the intimacy. But then you just, kind of, have to forget that. You just have to let it go. But that [the bikini scenes] was way scarier to me, actually.”
Raw talent
Aimee’s love of acting stems from a childhood that she admits was often turbulent, as her car dealer father once struggled with addiction.
She has said previously: “He would go out for a pint and not come back for days. He once didn’t come back for ten weeks because he’d been to the World Cup in South Korea.”
When the couple divorced, her mum’s new partner paid for her to attend a private secondary school where she discovered a love of acting when she studied drama — setting her on the road to stardom.
Such was her raw talent, she landed a place at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
She shot to fame in 2018 as Sex Education’s gawky schoolgirl Aimee Gibbs, when millions saw her naked as she enjoyed awkward sex with her aloof boyfriend Adam, played by SAS Rogue Heroes star Connor Swindells.
The pair dated in real life for two years until 2020, while the role led her to win Best Female Comedy Performance for the hit show at the Bafta TV awards in 2021.
She said: “I’m only just processing all of those scenes that I did in, like, season one of ‘Sex Ed’ and going, ‘How did I do that?’ ”
The West End followed with the role of Sonya in Uncle Vanya in 2020 and her “dream role” in Cabaret, playing club singer Sally Bowles in 2023. The in-demand star also starred in the 2021 film The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain.
Then, days after she turned 30, in February 2024, she left the South East London flat she shared with a theatre-school friend and headed to the Four Seasons Koh Samui resort in Thailand to film The White Lotus for seven months, admitting at times she felt homesick but adding the experience was “incredible”.
In The White Lotus there is more nudity, as her free- spirited character Gemma romps with boyfriend Rick — played by Walton Goggins — who is 22 years older than her.
She’s been lauded by critics for her portrayal of a British good time girl, complete with a Northern accent, after initially considering an American voice with director Mike White.
She said: “I can do an American accent. But Mike just wanted my Manchester one. So I did one tape in American and one in my own. And he said, ‘Let’s do Manchester’.”
And she light-heartedly admits she doesn’t look like most US actresses because of one distinctive feature.
She said: “It’s the teeth! No Americans have my teeth. I think that genuinely is one of the things.
I played an American in a play in Chicago and afterwards this guy in the bar, he was talking to me and he went: “I knew it. I knew it. Your accent was great but I knew you weren’t American. You just don’t look American.”
Filming The White Lotus, she reveals, was an intense experience.
She said: “We were all in the hotels we were filming at, so it is a social experiment. It is ‘Big Brother’. Full on.
I’m only just processing fully all of those scenes that I did in season one of Sex Ed and going, ‘How did I do that?
Aimee
“There’s no separation between set and home. You are just walking to your hotel room every night. So we were all a very dysfunctional, lovely family. I don’t think I’ll ever have an experience like that again.
“It is The Truman Show. All I kept thinking the whole way through was, ‘I feel like Jim Carrey’.”
The star says she wanted to land the role as she’d been “obsessed” with the first two series of The White Lotus. She said: “I am an actual superfan and so are my friends.”
Down-to-earth Aimee, who is thought to be single, only found out she’d got the part during a girls’ night out.
She said: “I was out with my friends, and I went to the loo and I checked my phone and it came up: Mike can’t wait to work with you . . .”
“And I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ It was like the maddest experience.”
Balmy beaches
But her acting range goes into grittier drama too, demonstrated by her role in Toxic Town, ranked at number two on Netflix this week, in which she stars alongside former Doctor Who actress Jodie Whittaker.
Based on a 2009 toxic waste scandal in Corby, Northants, which was blamed for causing birth defects in the area, Aimee plays mum Tracey Taylor, whose baby died within days of being born.
She was so moved by the role, which was based on a true story, that when she met Tracey at the release of the series last month, she cried as she told her: “I’m so grateful to you”.
Critics say both Aimee’s and Jodie’s performances are award-worthy.
And she’s so in demand, this month she’s been back in Stockport filming the second series of Daddy Issues with David Morrissey, where her character Gemma discovered she was pregnant following a hook up.
Being around the pool in a bikini is when you’re thinking more about how you look
Aimee Lou Wood
Yet despite her frenetic workload, she is keeping in touch with her old White Lotus cast mates — including Bridget Jones star Leo Woodall who appeared in season two, and Patrick Schwarzenegger — the heartthrob of the latest series.
She said of Leo: “He was checking in every now and then when I was in Thailand. That was really helpful because he knows what the experience is like.
“There is a WhatsApp group. Leslie [Bibb] and I still speak every day, because that was really hard, leaving each other at the end. All of us still chat.”
Aimee hopes there will be more seasons of The White Lotus — including one set far away from the balmy beaches of Thailand.
She said: “I really want to see them do one in a cold place, like a skiing one because I feel like it’s exactly the right kind of clientele but it’d be so cool to have a snowy vibe.
“I think part of what makes it great is the fact it is hot in all these places and everyone is a bit flustered and sweating.
“So I’d love to see how that would change and also to see everyone in their great ski outfits.
“I think that would be brilliant.”