Walton Goggins has finally explained why he decided to unfollow Aimee Lou Wood on Instagram.
The actors starred together as lovers Rick and Chelsea in the third series of the Emmy award-winning destination thriller The White Lotus.
His decision to unfollow Wood, combined with reports of tension between them on set, led to speculation of a feud.
Addressing the issue in a new joint interview for Variety, Goggins insists that wasn’t the case. He says that, in order to move on from one project to the next, he simply has to cut ties.
He explained: “When I left Justified, I went up to Tim [Olyphant], hugged him, and said, ‘I love you, and I hope I see you in rooms for the rest of my life.’ I didn’t talk to him for almost two years. I’ve done that with every single thing that I’ve done.”
It was no different with The White Lotus. However, filming on location in Thailand brought up past trauma.
In 2004, his wife died by suicide, and he spent the next three years traveling and searching for peace — which led him to Bangkok, the very place where they ended up shooting the show.
“My catharsis in this experience was different than other people’s, because of my history in this place. I knew what we 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, visibly emotional.
“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.”
Confirming this, Wood told the publication: “We don’t give a s***e about Instagram.”
During the interview, they also talked about the recent controversy over a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch that made fun of Wood’s teeth. The sketch, called “White Potus,” aired in April and featured Sarah Sherman playing Wood’s character, Chelsea, with noticeably exaggerated fake teeth. Jon Hamm appeared as a parody of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who talks about removing fluoride from drinking water, prompting the punchline: “What’s that?”
Goggins drew some criticism online for liking a post relating to the sketch and pictures soon circulated, claiming Wood was “crying” over the incident. However, she insisted she was not upset and had long since moved on.
Goggins reassured her in the interview, saying she had “the most beautiful smile in the world.”
In an interview with the Standard last month Goggins discussed the whirlwind that was The White Lotus, meeting his former self on set, his unlikely road to fame — and being a ‘spouse baby’ in his wife’s new film
