Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins Address Their Rumored ‘Feud': ‘We Care About Each Other Very Deeply'
'There is no feud,' Walton Goggins says of his relationship with Aimee Lou Wood, his co-star in The White Lotus season 3, courtesy of a new interview with Variety.
That revelation might come as a surprise to series fans, some of whom have questioned the status of Goggins and Wood's friendship in the wake of the third season's debut earlier this spring. Feud rumors first circulated on the heels of comments by co-star Jason Isaacs, who repeatedly referred to 'social tensions' on the HBO drama's Thailand set. Those rumors were further inflamed by Goggins's physical separation from the rest of the ensemble cast, including Wood, post-wrap. As he explained to Variety, that distance wasn't personal: He's been preoccupied with production on Prime Video's Fallout season 2, and on the evening of The White Lotus season 3's finale, he was in New York for an appearance on a late-night show, far from his fellow cast members.
In the latest chapter of showrunner Mike White's hit drama, Goggins and Wood play Rick and Chelsea, an unlikely pair of star-crossed lovers who meet a heart-breaking fate in the finale episode. During the Variety interview, in which Wood and Goggins were interviewed jointly, Goggins turned to Wood to express his sorrow at having missed the cast's finale watch party. 'I wish I would have been able to watch this with you,' he shared. 'It was so cathartic and so painful, and I regret that. I really do.'
But as the two explained in the cathartic tell-all, they have nothing but love to share with each other, and their rumored 'feud' largely amounts to public misconception.
'I adore, I love this woman madly, and she is so important to me,' Goggins said of Wood. 'This is Goldie Hawn. This is Meg Ryan. She can do anything, and she will. You watch what the next 20 years of her experience will be. I'll be on an island, I think Greece. But she's special. There is no feud. She is love and I know that I am that to her. We care about each other very deeply.'
In the days leading up to Goggins's recent Saturday Night Live hosting gig, the comedy show revealed a skit in which Sarah Sherman played a parody version of Wood's White Lotus character, Chelsea, complete with a pair of prosthetic buck teeth. Wood later went on Instagram to describe the sketch as 'mean and unfunny,' while Goggins reposted the clip and complimented its humor. Many viewers interpreted this move as a not-so-subtle swipe at Wood. Goggins told Variety it was anything but, and that after he encountered Wood's hurt response, he 'felt awful and deleted his post.'
'I've been posting for 14 fucking years, and if I'm gonna say something, I'm gonna say it to your face,' Goggins said. 'I don't use social media in any way, and I'm not a mean guy.'
Added Wood, 'I think it's such a comment on where we're at culturally. Why is everyone obsessing over Instagram? That is irrelevant. We don't give a shite about Instagram.'
Goggins also addressed why he unfollowed Wood on Instagram after The White Lotus wrapped, as well as his recent interview with the U.K.'s Times, which was published with the title, 'Walton Goggins: Aimee Lou Wood? I'm not gonna have that conversation.'
Regarding the Times story, Goggins said he simply did not feel as if a solo interview was the right time and space to address his relationship with Wood. 'What am I gonna do, speak for both of us? Never,' he said.
Regarding Instagram, he explained that he unfollowed Wood as a way to distance himself not from Wood herself but from the experience of filming The White Lotus. 'My catharsis in this experience was different than other people's, because of my history in this place,' Goggins said of his time in Thailand, referencing his time spent traveling the country in the wake of his wife's suicide in 2004. 'I knew what [Aimee and I] had gone through, and I knew how close that we had gotten, and I needed to begin to process saying goodbye to Rick and Chelsea,' Goggins continued. 'And I knew that that was going to take a while for me, so I let her know, this is what I've gotta do. And she was extremely supportive about that.'
He continued, 'I needed to just back away from everyone. I haven't spoken to anyone [from the cast]. I couldn't handle it. Judge me or don't. I don't give a fuck what you think. This is my process. Rick means everything to me, and Chelsea means everything to me. And so that's what I needed to do for me to process all of this.'
At the end of their conversation, Variety reports that Goggins re-followed Wood on Instagram, and that they embraced. 'I completely understand,' Wood told him. His response: 'I love you.' If only Rick could have expressed his feelings with this much clarity!
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