She’s starred in the popular Netflix show Sex Education and the Neon smash hit The White Lotus, with both roles requiring her to perform intimate bedroom scenes.
But Aimee Lou Wood says nothing in her acting career has been as daunting as stripping down to her bikini.
Aimee, 31, has previously spoken about her body dysmorphia, saying she once “hated my body and didn’t want to be in it at all. I felt like a floating head.”
She has since overcome those feelings, but the pool scenes she filmed were still a real challenge for her.
“I was more nervous about bikinis than sex scenes,” says Aimee 31, whose character in the show has a boyfriend 22 years older than her.
“I was more worried about just being around the pool because that’s when you’re thinking more about how you look.
“In an intimate scene, it’s all about the intimacy. The bikini scenes were way scarier to me.”
The actor, who is from a town near Manchester in northern England, says she felt homesick during The White Lotus’s seven-month shoot on the island of Ko Samui in Thailand. However, she had plenty of company, as she and the entire cast of the show (including Kiwi Morgana O’Reilly!) created by filmmaker Mike White stayed at the same resort the show was filming at.
Likening the setup to a Big Brother social experiment, she says, “There is just 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.”
Aimee found out she’d landed the role of Chelsea during a girls’ night out.
“I was out with my friends, and I checked my phone. It came up, ‘Mike can’t wait to work with you.’”
“I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ It was the maddest experience.”
Stream season 2 of The White Lotus on Neon
