(This story contains major spoilers of The white lotus Final of season three, “Amor Fati”.)
Aimee Lou Wood watched the final of season 3 of The white lotus For the first time last night like the rest of us.
But unlike those who are apparently indignant by the fate of her character, she is at peace with her. In fact, when Mike White was suddenly guessing the decision to make Chelsea always clever meet her disappearance – taken in the middle of a shooting that cost several people at the complex – including his soul mate, Rick, played by Walton Goggins, Wood was the one who pushed him to stay the course.
Wood spoke to The Hollywood Reporter About these conversations with White as well as the reasons why she feels strongly Chelsea is not a victim and reveals some powerful scenes that none of us will never see.
The Hollywood Reporter: It was terribly premonitory to have photographed you flat on your back as part of our recent cover of cover, right?
Aimee Lou Wood: I loved it because I obviously knew it and they said: “It would be pretty cool if it was lying down” and I said to myself: “Yeah, yeah, I think it would be Really cool. “I was so eager to make” dead death “.
We didn’t know …
And that’s what was so funny. I said to myself: “Ooh, I play with fire here.”
At the time, you also said: “I still cannot believe that my character, in a way, had his happy end, in a really damn way.” Is that what you felt?
Yeah.
Unpack a little more.
People like Chelsea and now they are angry that she was put in danger by Rick. But she was not put in danger by Rick, she was put in danger alone. So it is not a victim, it is like many of the tragic heroines that I love. I listened to Amy Winehouse all the time I was there. And so we love these incredible women, and I do not deny that they were not well treated because they had grumpy men who were shit, right?
Oh, absolutely.
But they are also strong, stubborn and determined women. Even if Rick had taken Chelsea to a car and sent her to the most distant place he could find, she would find her way. She would come back. And it is a very addictive quality, and Chelsea is a drug addict – it is a drug addiction and it has not defeated its dependence. It is as if she had made Rick her superior power, she made the relationship her superior power, and she sees God at that time when he says: “Yes, that’s the plan.” And at that time, they went from an addictive relationship to the connected relationship and that is what we wanted from the start. We wanted it to be a power dynamic, but a connected horizontal relationship, but of course, in the classic fashion of Rick and Chelsea, it can only last one night …
Because the two are drug addicts?
Yes. Rick made his pain his higher power, or the revenge of his high power. So they are both trapped. And Chelsea thinks that fate is external, but it is internal. It is her thing that she did not face. It is his unclafted shit. These are not great forces outside her pushing her to Rick; These are great strengths inside her pushing her to Rick. But she doesn’t look inside. She claims, she says she reads these books. But then Saxon (played by Patrick Schwarzenegger) tries to look in her and she cannot do it. She throws these books to him and said, “Here, read them.” That’s all she uses to deviate: spirituality, zodiacs. It’s: don’t look at me, look at that. And you can really see him when Saxon came and sat on the beach with her and he left and read the book. Do you think that if she had said to Rick, “I need you to read this book for me”, he would have done it?
Not a chance.
It will never be read. But Saxon takes it, and he reads it – he still reads it on the boat at home. This end of him is that he reads this book, which kills me. Because he looks at her and listens to her. He doesn’t say she’s stupid, he doesn’t close her, but she sees Rick and she runs towards him. She literally runs towards her fate. So that’s what she wants. And in fact, it is condescending in a way of leaving as if it had no agency – that Rick is the one who caused all the problems. It’s like, they are both collusion in this thing. Even Patrick said, “Why didn’t Saxon have a bullet for Chelsea?” It was so upset that Saxon did not take a bullet. He was like: “Why did Mike not write it so that Saxon jumps in front, so that Chelsea could live?” It’s like everyone wanted to save Chelsea.
But …
But she can only save herself. I think, however, that she lives in Saxon. He does not get Chelsea, but he will internalize everything she taught him and he will live with that. As Mike says, reading the book at the end is very hopeful because she says he could use everything (he learned), and it is very rare for a White lotus character to change as much.
Tell me more about the experience of filming this final and fatal scene and the conversations you had with Mike White on this subject?
It was Mike (who) was on several occasions was: “Am I doing the wrong thing?”
Jennifer Coolridge tried to dissuade him from killing Tanya, her character. Have you done the same?
No. I said: “The actor loves wants to be in another season …” In fact, today I saw (someone say that) maybe Chelsea could be an imaginary friend of Saxon in season four, and I said to myself: “I am ready for that.” She is like her inner voice. But I said to myself: “Chelsea must die, Mike. Chelsea and Rick must die. They must. ” But, yes, it was he who started to vacillate on the choice. He was like: “But she is hope and I kill hope.” And it is also Mike speaking through all these characters, and if I am the optimistic and optimistic part of him and that he must then kill him, it must be quite terrible. But it is not the same thing as killing Tanya because there are features in Tanya that you may want to kill … (Laughter.)
It sounds right to say.
While with Chelsea, you don’t want to kill the heart full of hope in history. But it had to be she or it must have been Rick and Chelsea because, by Mike, doing that, he gave Chelsea the status of the mystique that she thinks she is. She says that things happen by three, that Rick and Chelsea will be together forever, that she will follow him in the next life – therefore, by killing him, Mike gives her what she wants, what is right. And people will say: “Well, what she wants is just that Rick introduces herself for her”, but I don’t know if it’s true. I think that part of it does it, the advanced part of it, but the unmanned part of it, that which did not do the work, which did not go to therapy, which has not looked inside, it just wants to be right and it is right.
As Mike has recognized, there are a lot on the floor of the ground. What have we seen?
Oh, many had to be cut. I mean, I think it was like half an hour of each episode.
What have we seen from the end?
There was this beautiful scene with Rick and Chelsea who did not enter the last episode, and I completely understand why this was not the case because it would have been a double beat. But there was a scene where they are back in the room, and she asks him if he did something wrong (while he was absent), and he says no, and she knows that he is telling the truth and that she is very happy and joyful. And then she says: “This year, my return from Saturn, so it will either be the best or the worst year, and I think it will be the best, right?” And he says: “I do it.” And then he takes it and he kisses her and he puts it on the bed. And it was beautiful, but if we had that, then the scene where he said: “It’s the plan” would not have been so special. So I know why it had to leave. There were a lot of Rick and Chelsea stuff that did not succeed …
What else?
In the first drafts of the script, before I played Chelsea and Walton playing Rick, Chelsea spoke of things like her money. She would be like: “Oh, it’s okay You Spend money, but not when I spend money “, and he says:” Yeah, because it’s my money and you are not my wife. “And she says,” But we are soul mate; this is what you said to Cancun. “And he said:” But we were on methamphetamine. ” There was much more like that, but it was cut because we cannot have any doubts, even for a second, that Chelsea loves Rick. And Chelsea, it had to be a love story.
Walton was not at the final event last night. He said he had watched the episode alone, which was part of his mourning process. I believe that last night was the first time you watched it, and you did it with the rest of the distribution. How do you feel about this decision and experience?
I will also look at him alone. But I am so happy to have made this decision because of Catharsis.
Was it cathartic for you?
Yeah. See Patrick’s hand meet the thing to hold mine, and hayle in the room when he went to Chelsea and there is blood there. I think that being just part of the collective, which is so important to me, to finish this trip with my friends, who are now my family. And I was overwhelmed when he came out. I said, “I don’t think I want to make the press, I don’t think I want to go anywhere”, that’s why the coming to Los Angeles was such a great thing for me. But Michelle (Monaghan) said “to understand the mission” and last night, everyone understood the mission. I sat there and I could see them all, then there was a moment after (the episode was broadcast), where Jon (Gries) and I just held the hand and cried. Then we had to make a panel afterwards! We said to ourselves, “How are we going to speak now?!” And I was sad that Walton is not there because it was something we did together but also it is so Rick and Chelsea. Like, of course, Walton had to look at him alone and of course, I had to look at him in the group because there is so much time in Chelsea and so much Walton in Rick.
I guess it’s a little life imitating art or art imitating life …
It is. And I think we both feel a similar thing today from: “Okay, I can abandon the parts of this character, Chelsea, who holds me back and I can grow in the way Chelsea could not.” And at the same time, all the songs I love with her, I can take with me. So there is this strange feeling today of Renaissance, and I am sure that Walton feels the same thing about Rick because it is like, no matter the fuck in him, it was Rick, and he can let go now. As Chelsea says, “You are free. It’s a new day. ” And it’s true. I have the impression that today is the first new day that I had had for a very long time. Because this trip was so long – and the weekly thing, I love it, but it means that I am still in it. But now, I feel like I have been out and it’s sad, but it’s also like, I’m free to be loved again.
