‘The White Lotus’ Star Aimee Lou Wood Knows You’re Thirsting After Co-Star Walton Goggins: “The Ghoul Did Weird Things To People”
The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 2 “Special Treatments” helped explain what might have drawn the HBO show’s odd couple Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) together in the first place: sex. Sure, the tender-hearted Chelsea is an incurable romantic and optimist, certain she was put on the planet to save Rick from his own very traumatic demons, but it becomes very evident late in The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 2 that the two have really great “bed chem,” as Sabrina Carpenter might croon. The two share a steamy sex scene after a tense dinner with Chelsea’s new gal pal Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) and her boyfriend “Gary,” whom the audience knows is really Greg (Jon Gries).
In real life, The White Lotus Season 3 star Aimee Lou Wood is well aware that Chelsea’s landed herself a hottie. After all, she was working with Goggins on The White Lotus at the exact same time the internet began thirsting over his unconventionally sexy antihero on Prime Video‘s Fallout, the Ghoul.
“He was already a heartthrob, of course he is, and I thought he was already, but when Fallout came out and the Ghoul did weird things to people, it got bigger,” Wood told DECIDER. “So whilst we were filming, the heartthrob thing became more and more of a thing.”
“It was actually really fun to be around that time that Fallout came out and this huge reaction to the Ghoul and people being like, ‘How can he still be sexy with no nose?’”
“Yeah, I get it. I get it,” Wood said, acknowledging the affect that Walton Goggins has on many fans.
Wood also noted that she, herself, is one of those fans. So much so, she had to separate her costar’s character from his public image to get the job done.
“Yeah, I was saying he had to be ‘Rick’ to me. He couldn’t be Walton Goggins,” Wood said. “Because if he was Walton Goggins, I’d be sat there going, ‘I’m acting with Walton Goggins and I’m freaking out.’ So he was just Rick.”
We learn more about Rick this week. Namely that his father was killed before he was born and his drug addict mother died when he was a child. It’s this trauma that stokes his nihilism.
We also learn more about Rick and Chelsea’s dynamic. They share a private moment of amusement over the fact that Gary/Greg doesn’t know that Chloe is French Canadian, showing a shared sense of humor. When Rick later points out Chloe is likely a sex worker, Chloe is shocked, pushing back that her new friend is a model. This suggests that Chloe is not a sex worker, since the idea didn’t occur to her, and that her attraction to Rick is legit. She also rushes to his arms after surviving the jewelry store heist and then comes to his bed begging that he hold her and protect her. Chelsea really is sprung on her man.
When DECIDER asked Aimee Lou Wood if Chelsea likes Rick for just his personality, or if she’s sexually attracted to the man she drags for being “old” and “grumpy,” she once again references her co-star’s sex symbol status.
“I think that it is his soul, but, yeah, Chelsea will definitely be like, ‘Rick’s gorge!’” Wood said. “I mean, yeah, obviously. It’s Walton.”
The White Lotus returns next Sunday, March 2 at 9 PM ET on HBO and MAX.
