Aimee-Lou Wood has just recreated her iconic final scene in The White Lotus, scooped up in the arms of co-star Walton Goggins, but there’s one key difference. This is one beauty look that would never have handled the heat and humidity in Thailand.
The pair have reunited for a cover shoot with Variety, but whereas the screen version saw Aimee-Lou’s Chelsea bare-faced and beachy-haired (oh and – spoiler alert – dead), the glossy magazine update is far, far more polished.
In gorgeous shoot photos shared by her hair and makeup squad, Aimee-Lou is very much alive, and the most glamorous we’ve ever seen her. The very antithesis of her pared-back White Lotus aesthetic, in fact.
Her long, brunette hair has been blowdried and tweaked to perfection by celebrity hairstylist Gareth Bromell, with artfully-flicked 1970s-style layers and glossy curtain bangs that would undoubtedly have wilted by the pool in Koh Samui. The overall effect is deeply expensive, aided and abetted by the high-end AZ haircare range used on the actress (FYI, the hairspray alone would set you back over £35; how very White Lotus hotel shop).
As one envious Instagram follower tells Gareth: 'Honestly I wish you were my hair stylist - this is perfection ❤️’ and another gets straight to the point: ‘Babe what the hell I want this haircut pls’.
Aimee-Lou’s makeup look will be going straight onto a fair few beauty moodboards, too. Marking a departure from her usual, simple feline flick, the actress has gone for a smouldering bedroom eyes look, with charcoal kohl smoked out around her eyes, paired with a plush, velvety deep-rose lip.
Her skin, meanwhile, has a beautifully blurred-out matte quality, without a trace of Chelsea’s suncream-y holiday sheen. Five stars all round.
Walton himself has scrubbed up rather nicely for the Variety shoot, ditching Rick’s sweat-soaked hairdo and swapping out the floral hippy shirt for a sharp suit.
Although the Variety makeover shows that the pair have long since checked out of the White Lotus Hotel, Aimee-Lou and Walton did use the accompanying interview as an opportunity to set the record straight about rumours of a behind-the-scenes fall-out.
Gossip began after Walton praised a Saturday Night Live White Lotus skit which Aimee-Lou rightly called out for being ‘mean and unfunny’ about her teeth, and fans noticed the pair had unfollowed each other on Instagram.
However, Walton scotches the rumours of a spat between the pair, lavishing his 'special' co-star with praise, and adding: ‘There is no feud. She is love and I know that I am that to her’. Aimee-Lou has a hilariously succinct take on the matter, telling Variety: ‘We don’t give a shite about Instagram.’
So rest easy, everyone: it’s RIP Rick and Chelsea, but Aimee-Lou and Walton are soulmates now, forever and into the next life, too. Read the full Variety interview here.
