White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood clamps down on teeth talk: ‘Makes me a bit sad’

The White Lotus star says she feels annoyed that people are constantly talking about “a woman’s appearance” instead of her career.

Aimee Lou Wood feels “sad” that her teeth are talked about more than her acting work.

The 31-year-old actress is “really happy” that the prominent gap in her smile is “symbolising rebellion and freedom”, but she feels annoyed that people are constantly talking about “ target="_self" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/women/">a woman’s appearance” instead of her career.

She told GQ Hype magazine: “It makes me really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit.

“The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and 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 criticising.”

“And, I have to go there … I don’t know if it was a man would we be talking about it this much? It’s still going on about a woman’s appearance.”

The White Lotus series three star was told by a producer at the end of the first week of filming in Thailand for the hit HBO dark comedy-drama that the show’s creator Mike White had fought for Aimee to play Chelsea.

However, she worried that “HBO didn’t want me” because of her “ugly” looks.

She explained: “Someone told me how much Mike had fought for me. 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.”

However, she was quickly assured by Mike that being quirky was not an issue.

Aimee said Mike told her: “Don’t get in the way of your weirdness. Be freaky!”

The dark comedy-drama follows “the exploits of various guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose stay becomes affected by their various dysfunctions”.

The star-studded cast – including Patrick Schwarzenegger (Saxon Ratliff ), Parker Posey (Victoria Ratliff) and Sarah Catherine Hook (Piper Ratliff) – set up home at the Four Seasons hotel in Koh Samui for seven months, and Aimee admitted she struggled to grip on to reality and was emotionally drained.

She added: “I had a slow and steady disintegration of my sanity ...

“It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. It did feel like a bit of a social experiment.”

The long filming schedule for the show made the Toxic Town actress realise how much she appreciates a normal, quiet life, admitting: “I want to have a weekend. I want to be with my friends.

“I don’t want to not be thinking about f***ing progressing my career for one second, because I don’t even f***ing care about progressing my career. So why is all my energy going towards something I don’t care about.”