[This story contains major spoilers from The White Lotus season three finale, “Amor Fati.”]
Aimee Lou Wood watched the season 3 finale of The White Lotus for the first time last night just like the rest of us.
But unlike those who are seemingly outraged by her character’s fate, she’s at peace with it. In fact, when Mike White was suddenly second guessing the decision to have the ever-hopeful Chelsea meet her demise — caught in the middle of a shootout that claimed the lives of several at the resort— including her soulmate, Rick, played by Walton Goggins, Wood was the one who pushed him to stay the course.
On Monday afternoon, Wood spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about those conversations with White as well as the reasons why she feels strongly Chelsea is not a victim and reveals a few powerful scenes that none of us will ever see.
The Hollywood Reporter: It was awfully prescient to have photographed you lying flat on your back as part of our recent cover shoot, no?
Aimee Lou Wood: I loved that because I obviously knew and they were like, “It would be quite cool if she was lying down,” and I was like, “Yeah, yeah, I think that would be really cool.” I was so keen to do the “dead Barbie.”
Little did we know…
And that’s what was so funny. I was like, “Ooh, I’m playing with fire here.”
At the time, you also said, “I still can’t believe that my character, in a way, got her happy ending, in a really fucked up way.” That’s how you felt?
Yeah.
Unpack that a little more.
People love Chelsea and now they’re angry that she was put in harm’s way by Rick. But she was not put in harm’s way by Rick, she was put in harm’s way by herself. So, she’s not a victim, she’s like many of the tragic heroines that I adore. I was actually listening to Amy Winehouse the whole time I was there. And so we love these incredible women, and I’m not denying that they were not treated well because they did have grumpy men that were shit to them, right?
Oh, absolutely.
But they’re also strong, tenacious, determined women. Even if Rick had bundled Chelsea into a car and sent her to the furthest away place that he could find, she would find her way back. She’d run back. And that is a very addict quality, and Chelsea is an addict — she’s a love addict and she didn’t defeat her addiction. It’s like she’s made Rick her higher power, she’s made the relationship her higher power, and she sees God in that moment where he says, “Yes, that’s the plan.” And in that moment, they’ve gone from addictive relationship to connected relationship and that’s what we’ve wanted all along. We’ve wanted it to be not a power dynamic, but a connected horizontal relationship, but of course, in classic Rick and Chelsea fashion, it can only last for one night …
Because both of them are addicts?
Yes. Rick has made his pain his higher power, or the revenge his high power. So, they’re both trapped. And Chelsea thinks that fate is external, but it’s internal. It’s her stuff that she hasn’t faced. It’s her unhealed shit. It’s not big forces outside of her pushing her to Rick; it’s big forces inside of her pushing her to Rick. But she doesn’t look inside. She pretends to, she says that she reads these books. But then Saxon [played by Patrick Schwarzenegger] tries to look inside her and she can’t do it. She chucks those books at him and says, “Here, read these.” It’s all the stuff that she uses to deflect: the spirituality, the zodiacs. It’s: don’t look at me, look at this. And you can really see it in that moment where Saxon came and sat on the beach with her and he’s gone and read the book. Do you think that if she’d said to Rick, “I need you to read this book for me,” he would have done it?
Not a chance.
It’s never going to be read. But Saxon takes it, and he reads it — he’s still reading it on the boat home. That end shot of him is him reading that book, which kills me. Because he’s looking at her and he’s listening to her. He’s not saying she’s stupid, he’s not shutting her down, but then she sees Rick and she runs to him. She literally runs towards her fate. So, that’s what she wants. And actually, it’s patronizing in a way to make it out like she doesn’t have any agency — that Rick is the one who’s caused all the problems. It’s like, they’re both colluding in this thing. Even Patrick saying, “Why did Saxon not take a bullet for Chelsea?” He was so upset that Saxon doesn’t take a bullet. He was like, “Why didn’t Mike write it so that Saxon jumps in front, so Chelsea could live?” It’s like everyone wants to save Chelsea.
But …
But she can only save herself. I do think she does live on in Saxon though. He doesn’t get Chelsea, but he’s going to internalize everything that she taught him and he’s going to live with that. Like Mike says, the reading of the book at the end is very hopeful because it’s saying that he might use everything [he’s learned], and it’s very rare for a White Lotus character to actually change that much.
Tell me more about the experience of filming that final, fatal scene, and the conversations you had with Mike White about it?
It was Mike [who] a few times was like, “Am I doing the wrong thing?”
Jennifer Coolidge famously tried to talk him out of killing Tanya, her character. Did you do the same?
No. I said, “Actor Aimee wants to be in another season….” Actually, today, I saw [someone say that] maybe Chelsea could be Saxon’s imaginary friend in season four, and I was like, “I’m up for that.” She’s like his inner voice. But I was like, “Chelsea has to die, Mike. Chelsea and Rick have to die. They have to.” But, yeah, he was the one who started to wobble on the choice. He was like, “But she’s hope and I’m killing hope.” And this is also Mike expressing himself through all these characters, and if I’m the hopeful, optimistic part of him and he then has to kill it, that must feel pretty terrible. But it’s not the same as killing Tanya because there are some traits in Tanya that you might want to kill off … (Laughs.)
That seems fair to say.
Whereas with Chelsea, you don’t want to kill the hopeful, tenacious, heart of the story. But it had to be her or it had to be Rick and Chelsea because, by Mike doing that, he’s given Chelsea the status of the mystic that she thinks she is. She says that things happen in threes, that Rick and Chelsea will be together forever, that she’s going to follow him into the next life — so, by giving her the death, Mike is giving her what she wants, which is being right. And people will say, “Well, what she wants is just Rick to show up for her,” but I don’t know if that is true. I think that a part of her does, the evolved part of her, but the un-evolved part of her, the one who hasn’t done the work, who hasn’t gone to therapy, who hasn’t looked inside, she just wants to be right and she gets proven right.
As Mike has acknowledged, there’s a lot on the cutting from floor. What didn’t we see?
Oh, a lot had to be cut. I mean, I think it was like half-an-hour of every episode.
What from the end didn’t we see?
There was this beautiful scene with Rick and Chelsea that didn’t make it into the final episode, and I completely get why it didn’t because it would’ve been a double beat. But there was a scene where they’re back in the bedroom, and she asks him if he did anything bad [while he was away], and he says no, and she knows that he’s telling the truth and she’s very happy and joyful. And then she says, “This year’s my Saturn return, so it’s either going to be the best or the worst year, and I think it’s going to be the best, don’t you?” And he says, “I do.” And then he picks her up and he kisses her and he puts her on the bed. And it was beautiful, but if we’d had that, then the scene where he says, “That’s the plan” wouldn’t have been as special. So, I know why it had to go. There was lots of Rick and Chelsea stuff that didn’t make it…
What else?
In the first drafts of the script, before it was me playing Chelsea and Walton playing Rick, Chelsea talked about things like his money more. She’d be like, “Oh, it’s okay when you spend money, but not when I spend money,” and he’s like, “Yeah, because it’s my money and you’re not my wife.” And she’s like, “But we’re soulmates; that’s what you said in Cancun.” And he says, “But we were on meth.” There was way more like that, but it was cut because we can’t have anyone doubt, even for a second, that Chelsea loves Rick. It’s also why sometimes I feel quite bad for Rick because there were other moments where Chelsea fucking gives it to him and those big, fucking gnarly arguments didn’t make it in either. And I think that if they had, people would’ve seen their relationship as more equal and hated on Rick less, but, at the same time, their death and their fate, Rick and Chelsea, it had to be a love story.
Walton wasn’t at the finale event last night. He’s said that he watched the episode alone, which was part of his grieving process. I believe last night was the first time you watched it, and you did so with the rest of the cast. How are you feeling about that decision and the experience?
I’m going to watch it alone as well. But I’m so glad I made that decision because of the catharsis.
It was cathartic for you?
Yeah. Seeing Patrick’s hand come across the thing to hold mine, and the gasp in the room when it went to Chelsea and there’s blood there. I think just being part of the collective, which is so important to me, getting to end that journey with my friends, who are now my family. And I was getting overwhelmed when it was coming out. I was saying, “I don’t think I want to do any of the press, I don’t think I want to go anywhere,” which is why the coming to L.A. was such a big thing for me. But Michelle [Monaghan] had been like, “Understand the assignment,” and last night, everyone understood the assignment. I sat there and I could see them all, and then there was a moment after [the episode aired], where Jon [Gries] and I just held hands and cried. Then we had to do a panel after! We were like, “How are we expected to speak right now?!” And I was sad that Walton wasn’t there because it was something that we did together but also it’s so fucking Rick and Chelsea. Like, of course Walton had to watch it alone and of course I had to watch it in the group because there is so much Aimee in Chelsea and so much Walton in Rick.
I suppose it’s a bit of life imitating art or art imitating life…
It is. And I think both of us are feeling a similar thing today of, “Okay, I can let go of the parts of this character, of Chelsea, that have been holding me back and I can grow up in the way that Chelsea couldn’t.” And at the same time, all the bits that I love about her, I can take with me. So, there’s this weird feeling today of rebirth, and I’m sure that Walton feels the same about Rick because it’s like, whatever the fuck was going on in him, that was Rick, and he can let go of it now. Like Chelsea says, “You’re free. It’s a new day.” And it’s true. It feels like today is the first new day that I’ve had in a very long time. Because this journey has felt so long — and the weekly thing, I love it, but it’s meant that I’m still in it. But now I feel like I’ve been released and it’s sad, but it’s also like, I’m free to be Aimee again.