Walton Goggins really does not want to talk about his 'White Lotus' costar Aimee Lou Wood
However, rather than putting to bed the rumors of the speculated rift between the " White Lotus" costars, Goggins's terse responses have fueled curiosity about what actually occurred between the actors.
In the Thailand-set third season of the critically acclaimed HBO series, Goggins, 53, played Rick, the love interest of 31-year-old Wood's character, Chelsea. The mismatched lovers died in the explosive season finale, which aired on April 7. Shortly after, rumors of a falling out between the two actors began circulating.
When asked during an interview with the Times of London about whether he and Wood had indeed fallen out, Goggins responded: "I'm not gonna have that conversation."
Goggins was being interviewed to promote his latest film, "The Uninvited," which was written and directed by his wife of 13 years, Nadia Conners. Throughout the conversation with Ed Potton, the journalist for the Times, Goggins sidestepped several questions about his British "White Lotus" costar.
The article said two publicists present intervened after Potton asked the first question related to Goggins's professional and personal relationship with Wood.
The first told Potton: "We're not going there, thank you." The other said: "Next question."
Later, the interviewer brought up Goggins's forthcoming appearance on "Saturday Night Live" and the NBC show's recent "White Potus" parody sketch, which poked fun at Trump and his inner circle, but also uncharitably mocked Wood's appearance and accent.
The article said that Goggins wouldn't discuss the topic and didn't respond when asked whether audiences could see him and Wood reunite on the "SNL" sound stage when he hosts the show on May 10. (The interviewer referenced comments from CNN journalist Elizabeth Wagmeister, who said that "there is something professionally that they are doing in the coming weeks together.")
At that point, one of the publicists interjected again to steer the conversation back to Goggins's movie. When the interviewer faltered on a question, Goggins acknowledged that the movie was the thing he was "least interested in."
The interviewer attempted to ask a question about Wood again. Without specifying the nature of the question, the article states that Goggins responded: "There is no conversation to be had about that. Sharing politics on social media — it's in a vacuum."
Before the interview concluded, the interviewer brought up Wood again — seemingly for the fourth time. "What the f***, Ed!" Goggins said. "Come on buddy. Wow."
"We're going to end it there," one of the publicists said, wrapping up the interview.
Goggins did speak about Wood once during the interview while discussing his character arc on "The White Lotus." He said his character was "incapable of seeing the love that he needed was right there in front of him," while Wood, as Chelsea, "is just a beautiful light in the world and was capable of conveying that."
Fans of the show began suspecting that the two stars had fallen out after noticing that they had stopped following each other on Instagram sometime between filming together in Thailand and the airdate of the season three finale.
Their costar, Jason Isaacs said there were "tensions and difficulties" on the set of the show in an interview with the Guardian. "There were alliances that formed and broke, romances that formed and broke, friendships that formed and broke," he said in February.
In a March interview with The Guardian, Wood herself described working on the show as similar to "a social experiment."
Representatives for Goggins and Wood did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider outside regular working hours.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bob Odenkirk thinks he was 'too hard' on 'SNL' as young writer: 'This show could be better'
Bob Odenkirk has found new respect for Saturday Night Live after leaving the show. While discussing Nobody 2 at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, the actor tells Entertainment Weekly that he has gained a better perspective on SNL in the years since he finished his tenure as a writer, which lasted from 1987 to 1991. Although he's previously said that he had a less-than-stellar view of SNL while he worked there, he now realizes that he judged the show too harshly. "I was too hard on the show," he says. "I had a lot of attitude when I got hired there, like, 'This show could be better, this show could be Monty Python, this should be more cutting edge, this should be more dangerous.' And I was frustrated by it not representing purely my point of view. I wanted it to be me, my show." Odenkirk now understands that his desire to personally transform the entire voice of SNL was foolhardy. "It's not my show! It's a show that is shared by everyone who's in that cast, and everyone who's in that writing staff, and it's shared by generations, and not one generation," he says. He continues, "Everybody in America watches it, and it's a reference point for everyone. I think the 50th just made me more aware [than] ever of the amazing work that's been done there." The Better Call Saul star also thinks that he got to write boundary-pushing comedy on a later project. "I think Mr. Show, the show I did with David Cross, I consider my effort to do something edgy and new and try to blast through some barriers and go to another level," he says. Odenkirk also admits that he didn't fully appreciate how SNL's lightning-fast weekly schedule makes its production so difficult. "It's a bigger challenge than I thought it was when I worked there," he explains. "When I worked there I was 25, I was like, 'C'mon, dammit! We can do better! This is easy!' And it literally was the years since I've left that I went, 'Wait a second, that show is almost impossible to do at all.'" Additionally, when asked if he'd consider hosting the show during its upcoming 51st season, Odenkirk responds strongly in the affirmative. "I would love that opportunity," he says. "I have mad respect for the effort of that show, and I would dream of being able to host."Though he's never hosted the show before, Odenkirk says that it remains within the realm of possibility. "There's been conversation about it," he explains. "They don't have me locked out. I'm friends with everybody there, and I know so many of the writers, and I know so many of the actors. It's just part of my life." Watch EW's full livestream of Friday's Comic-Con interviews above. Check out more of . Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Billy Joel Says Wife Alexis Was 'Unimpressed with the Whole Billy Joel Thing' When They First Met — Which 'Impressed' Him
The legendary musician talks about meeting his wife for the first time in the new HBO documentary 'Billy Joel: And So It Goes' Billy Joel brought out all the stops for his wife Alexis the first time they met — but she wasn't exactly impressed by a private concert. Joel, 76, reflects on the first time he met Alexis, 43, in the new HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, and recalls that her nonchalance toward his skills drew him to her. 'When you meet someone who captures your imagination, it renews, it revitalizes,' he says in the film. 'I remember the first time I met Alexis, we went to my house, and I wanted to play the piano for her. It's a form of communication for me.' The 'Just the Way You Are' singer says he drew on a famous scene from the Marilyn Monroe film The Seven-Year Itch, in which the character trying to woo Monroe's character plays a song by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. 'I'm playing that and she's completely unimpressed with it, totally. She couldn't care less what I'm playing and I'm thinking, 'Oh OK, this isn't working,'' Joel says. 'She was very unimpressed with the whole Billy Joel thing, which impressed me. Because I thought, 'OK, maybe she's just here because she likes me, not the Billy Joel guy.'' Joel says he was initially uncertain as to whether he wanted to start a new relationship, as he was fresh off a divorce from his third wife, Katie Lee, and was wary. Still, the star explains that 'something popped,' and he knew he was open to love once more. Alexis — whom he went on to marry in 2015 and welcome daughters Della, 9, and Remy, 7 — also appears in the documentary, and says that the couple got to know each other better after that first meeting through phone calls and emails. She also praises his skills in the kitchen, saying Joel would often cook dinner for her to come home to while she was working in finance. 'We had a couple years together before we had kids and he had completely stopped doing shows,' she says. 'We traveled everywhere. We did a motorcycle trip from Maine down to Long Island, we were on boats 24/7. We were in Europe. We had so much fun.' Alexis has been a pillar of strength for the star in recent months as he deals with a treatable brain condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus (The rocker tells PEOPLE in this week's issue that he's 'OK' and not 'deathly ill'). Dennis Arfa, the star's longtime booking agent, tells PEOPLE he's 'so happy' to see Joel 'raising his children and being so in love with them and Alexis and his family.' 'It's quite rewarding,' Arfa says. 'I'm always rooting for Billy's happiness and his success. I've seen Billy have a lot of happy times through his life, [but] he's had to deal with certain adversity. I'm happy for him in this chapter, and I'm looking forward to the next chapter with him.' Joel himself adds that he's 'really enjoying this time in my life.' Billy Joel: And So It Goes (now streaming on HBO Max) is a rare, revelatory glimpse into the private world of one of rock music's most enduring acts, and how he overcame substance abuse, mental health struggles, and more to find peace. Read the original article on People
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
The beauty of Bill Joel? Unlike with so many stars, there's no myth-building
Normally, if you see someone's four wives all speaking about them on TV, it's a safe bet you're watching a 'Dateline' murder mystery. So it's astonishing to witness all three of Billy Joel's exes appear as well as his current wife in the documentary 'And So It Goes,' the second episode of which premieres Friday at 8 p.m. on HBO. Heck, even his former bandmate Jon Small is a frequent voice in the film. Small was married to Elizabeth Weber when the Piano Man and Weber fell in love. Advertisement The fallout from that triangle led Joel to attempt suicide, and he says he felt like a 'homewrecker.' But Small 'finally got over it' — and even went on to direct the music video for 'Uptown Girl.' 8 Last summer, Billy Joel ended his long running residency at Madison Square Garden. Getty Images I cannot account for his personal interactions and how he's still on good terms with all these people, but it says a lot about the man. Forgiveness is complicated. Advertisement And so is self-examination. But Joel, who has an inherent likability, seems to be well-practiced in the art. Not that he didn't give the women in his life agita. Much of his marital strife was fueled by alcohol abuse, and much of that was well documented in the press over the years. 'Some of the stupid stuff I did, that's painful to talk about,' the 76-year-old recently told People magazine, adding that directors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin 'asked me for some thematic guidance. I said, 'Just tell the truth.'' 8 HBO's two-part documentary 'And So It Goes' explores the life and music of Billy Joel. Advertisement What's interesting is not just his story but the way he tells it, and the way he let the filmmakers have free rein. Lacy said they were given 'complete and utter independence' by the singer-songwriter. Unlike with so many stars, there's no myth-building at play. There's no artifice. As told in the documentary, his remarkable life can be summed up by the opening anecdote. Joel, who grew up in Hicksville, Long Island, recalls working on an oyster boat as a young man. He'd look up a sprawling mansion and sneer at the 'rich bastards' who lived there. 8 In the 1980s, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley were the biggest celebrity power couple — and she was his muse. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images Advertisement 'Well, I own that house now,' he said. It doesn't come off as an arrogant mic drop, but rather a 'pinch me' moment. And while he famously has a song called 'Angry Young Man,' it's the fact that he remained a man of the people that's been the key to his success. He is not, as Bruce Springsteen notes in the film, 'an angry activist man. He never directly goes there. Which is part of why the material hasn't dated.' 8 Billy Joel started taking piano lessons as a young boy in Hicksville, Long Island. Photograph by Billy Joel Archives/HBO 'Say Goodbye to Hollywood' was written when Joel and Weber were living in California — and he realized that the Empire State was a better personality fit. Relieved to be back, he literally wrote 'New York State of Mind' while on a Greyhound bus heading to Highland Falls, where Weber had found them a home. With 'Goodnight Saigon,' he wove a beautiful narrative through the tales of his friends who had returned from Vietnam. Advertisement 8 Billy Joel's first wife, Elizabeth Weber, was also his manager. She is interviewed in 'And So It Goes.' AFP via Getty Images 'Lullaby' was written for his daughter Alex Ray Joel as he was splitting with second wife Christie Brinkley. 'Piano Man' is rightfully praised in the documentary by rapper Nas as a 'mirror facing the mirror.' There's themes of love, loss and searching for his absentee father. Joel found him living in 'Vienna.' Advertisement But he has never truly told people how to think — a rarity these days. 8 Billy Joel performing in the 1970s. Photograph by Art Maillet/Sony Music Archives/HBO As critic Steven Hyden remarks in the film. 'He writes about people. Not causes or concepts.' Joel has said he knows people don't want to hear him on his soap box. Advertisement Appearing on 'Club Random,' he recently told Bill Maher he has no time for woke scolds. 8 In 2015, Joel married his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick, and the pair share two daughters, Della and Remy. Wireimage 'On the other hand, I'm always trying to find out the other point of view. What's, you know, not my point of view — somebody else's point of view,' Joel told Maher. 'OK, I'd like to understand why they think that way.' It's obvious why people connect with the guy. He's one of us, only with six Grammies and a spot in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Advertisement The father-of-three was recently diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder that causes, among other things, issues with cognition and balance. This week, he told Maher that he 'feels good' save for his balance: 'It's like being on a boat.' 8 On a recent episode of 'Club Random' Billy Joel told Bill Maher that he 'feels good' despite his diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus. Youtube / Club Random w/ Bill Maher He also promised that he isn't done yet. Music to my ears.
