Rick and Chelsea are clearing the air.
“The White Lotus” stars Walton Goggins, 53, and Aimee Lou Wood, 31, addressed rumors about their alleged feud in a joint Variety interview published on Wednesday, June 4.
“There is no feud. I adore, I love this woman madly, and she is so important to me,” Goggins said.
About Wood, he added, “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.”
Goggins and Wood starred as Rick and Chelsea, an ill-fated couple on vacation in Thailand, in Season 3 of the HBO hit “The White Lotus.” Their co-stars included Jason Isaacs, Carrie Coon, Sam Rockwell, Leslie Bibb, Patrick Schwarzenegger and more.
Each season follows a different cast of dysfunctional wealthy people on vacation at a branch of the titular resort.
After Season 3 ended in April, the actors became surrounded by speculation that they were feuding.
The rumors were caused in part by their co-star, Isaacs, who hinted at behind-the-scenes drama during a March interview with Vulture.
“It was like a cross between summer camp and ‘Lord of the Flies’ but in a gilded cage. It wasn’t a holiday,” Isaacs, 61, said.
“Some people got very close, there were friendships that were made and friendships that were lost.”
Aimee Lou Wood in an Instagram photo from April. waltergogginsbonafide/Instagram
Fans also noticed that Goggins unfollowed Wood on Instagram, fanning the flames of speculation.
Regarding why he unfollowed Wood, he explained to Variety, “When I left ‘Justified,’ I went up to Tim [Olyphant], and I hugged him and I 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.”
Goggins, who has been married to Nadia Conners since 2011, lost his first wife, Leanne Kaun, to suicide in 2004. Following that tragedy, he traveled to Thailand, which made “The White Lotus” filming experience feel extra personal, he said.
“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 said.
Per Variety, he started crying as he spoke.
The “Fallout” actor added, “And I knew that that was going to take a while for me, so I let [Wood] know, this is what I’ve gotta do. And she was extremely supportive about that.”
After filming ended, “I needed to just back away from everyone,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to anyone. I couldn’t handle it. Judge me or don’t. I don’t give a f–k 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.”
Goggins quipped that if he had been following Olyphant or his “The Shield” co-star Michael Chiklis, he would have unfollowed them on Instagram as well after those respective shows ended.
Wood said, “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 s–te about Instagram. Why not have conversations about the story and Rick and Chelsea and enjoy it?”
Wood said that as she watched the feud rumors go, she wanted to correct people but knew her words would get twisted. “Eventually I just started to sit back and watch these people making something out of absolutely nothing.”
Goggins said, “If I may add, just to put this to bed? The following or unfollowing. I’m a grown-ass man.”
The feud rumors were also ignited when The London Times published an interview with Goggins in May. In it, Goggins cut off the interviewer over questions about his relationship with Wood and abruptly ended the interview.
Goggins told Variety that he refused to talk about Wood to The London Times because she wasn’t there.
Instagram/@waltongogginsbonafide
“What am I gonna do, speak for both of us? Never.”
Goggins also alleged that the Times reporter asked three different times about Wood and had a “divisive nature.”
He said that the final question compared Goggins’ teeth to Wood’s – whose teeth were the topic of an “SNL” sketch that she slammed – and asked if they’d bonded over that.
“What he was insinuating, it was so disgusting. It was so appalling. I was flabbergasted. And I said, ‘F–k mate, wow. I think we’re done here,’” Goggins said.
Regarding Isaac’s comments about the behind-the-scenes drama, Goggins and Wood both weighed in.
“We’d never lived on a set. This is the first time we were all experiencing basically a reality TV show,” Wood said. “I think we both struggle with work-life balance anyway, so it’s hard because there’s not even separation in distance.”
They explained that the entire cast got group meals occasionally, but they sometimes avoided them.
“I don’t mean to sound like an a–hole, it’s not method or anything, I just felt like I needed to stay in the space,” says Goggins.
Wood said, “Both of us would get overwhelmed.”
The “Justified” actor explained, “But there were never any negative vibes” with the rest of the cast.
Goggins and Wood also revealed that Rick and Chelsea had an additional sex scene that got cut from the finale. Goggins called it “powerful,” while Wood called it “delicate.”
Referring to “The White Lotus” creator Mike White, Goggins joked about the cut sex scene: “F–k you, Mike! We want a director’s cut!”
