BRUTAL

‘White Lotus’ Star Opens Up About Feeling Too ‘Ugly’ for HBO

Aimee Lou Wood recalled thinking, “HBO didn’t want me,” when she was cast.

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood revealed that she felt “ugly,” when she found out the show’s creator had to “fight” to cast her in the show. Wood, who played Chelsea in the series opposite Walton Goggins’ Rick, opened up about her experience in a recent interview with British GQ. “Someone told me how much Mike [White] had fought for me,” she told the magazine. “They said, ‘It had to be you, no matter what HBO said.’ It was honestly from the nicest place, but my little head goes: ‘HBO didn’t want me. And I know why HBO didn’t want me, it’s because I’m ugly. Mike had to say ‘Please let me have the ugly girl!’ That was the thing that was in my head.” When the conversation around the show turned to Wood’s gap teeth following the season premiere, the actress said, “It makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work. They think it’s nice because they’re not criticizing.” Wood previously told Buzzfeed that she initially talked herself out of auditioning for the show before she overcame her doubts. She also told the site that White’s “genius lies in his intuition with casting,” so it seems she agrees he made the right choice.