Rick and Chelsea forever.
Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood spoke out on social media after their characters were killed in “The White Lotus” Season 3 finale Sunday night.
Goggins, 53, shared an Instagram with behind-the-scenes photos of him and Wood, 31, on the show’s set in Thailand, alongside a heartfelt message about Rick and Chelsea.
“With the heaviest of hearts… To me, ours was a love story,” Goggins wrote. “It was only ever a love story, hindered by unresolved, childhood trauma. We all have them… but can we move past them.”
He continued, “In the depths of our despair there is always beauty around us. If we can sit with our pain, just sit with it… not react… not be defined by it…It’s there… the love the world is constantly giving in any given moment is there. Always waiting for us to see it… Trust me I know.”
Goggins went on to thank creator Mike White “for your imagination, your tender heart, for the privilege of giving us the opportunity to tell it.” He also thanked Wood “for being my partner…a journey I will never forget.”
Sam Rockwell, who played Rick’s pal Frank, also got a shoutout from Goggins, who called his co-star “the best wing man a fella could ask for.”
“And every stellar f***ing actor in this cast. You’re just incredible to watch,” Goggins added. “Bernad, John, Ben, Kamine … and this whole crew. I love you. We’ll always have Thailand. And to all of you … thank you for going on this journey with us. WG Those first 5 are photos, some taken on those fateful days, are by our incredible stills photographer @fabio_lovino_ Gifts. Thank you friend.”
The “Fallout” star concluded his post with a quote from the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
Wood, meanwhile, shared a photo on Instagram of a white garage with the words, “I love you. R+C Forever,” written on it in green paint.
“I only went home once whilst filming White Lotus. This is what I saw on the first day back there. R and C forever 💘,” the British actress said in her caption.
Wood also addressed Chelsea and Rick’s deaths at a cast panel at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, California on Sunday night.
“Obviously, being the one that dies, this whole time I’ve been like, ‘So sad, Mike kills hope. Because Chelsea is hope, and he kills her,’” Wood said, per CNN.
“And it’s like, yeah, but then what I saw just then was like, there was so much love in it!” she added. “That’s why it’s so much more painful, because you have to hold it all at the same time.”
Wood also described the finale as having “a lot of hope” and “very, very moving.”
She added of her death scene, “It was weird because for two weeks before we shot it, I felt super weird. It felt like this odd, ominous thing. It was the hottest day ever and Walton had to carry me so many times. It looked exactly how it felt, which is really strange. There’s a lot in that episode that made me f—ing sob. I feel ache-y.”
Patrick Schwarzenegger (Saxon), Jason Isaacs (Tim), Sam Nivola (Lochlan), Sarah Catherine Hook (Piper), Jon Gries (Greg/Gary), Leslie Bibb (Kate), Charlotte Le Bon (Chloe), Tayme Thapthimthong (Gaitok) and Nicholas Duvernay (Zion) joined Wood at the panel. Goggins was not there.
In the finale, Rick murders resort owner Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn) — who turns out to be his real father — which leads to a shootout at the hotel. While Rick kills two security guards, Chelsea tragically catches a stray bullet in her chest and dies.
While walking away with Chelsea’s body, Rick is shot and killed by Gaitok.
Before the final episode, Wood told The Sunday Times that she’s sick of the talk about her unique teeth.
“It’s, like, cool, and now I want to stop f***ing talking about it. Can I talk about my character? Why am I talking about my gnashers?” the actress said. “It’s like now I’m just a pair of front teeth.”
She added: “I understand what it represents. People feel more confident about their imperfections. It does feel a bit weird that the thing I got bullied for is now the thing that everyone’s, like, ‘Woo!’ It’s still the thing that’s defining me.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
