Walton Goggins is finally explaining the great mystery of our time: Why the actor unfollowed his White Lotus season three co-star Aimee Lou Wood on Instagram after the finale aired.
Or, at least, Goggins is giving a detailed reason as to why he did it. Readers can judge for themselves — and most assuredly will — as to whether there’s more to the story. The duo have been on the receiving end of feud rumors, while their co-star, Jason Isaacs, has heavily hinted at on-set drama, without naming names (“There were alliances that formed and broke, romances that formed and broke, friendships that formed and broke,” Isaacs told The Guardian. “It’s a long period of time for people to be away from their family with an open bar and all the wildness being in Thailand allows”).
Now Goggins and Wood — who played doomed lovers Rick and Chelsea on the HBO anthology hit — seemed ready to clear up any such gossip as awards season gets underway. During a new interview with Variety, Goggins and Wood tackled the Instagram controversy head on.
But first, they “embraced for 30 seconds” (which somebody apparently timed) and repeatedly held hands and exchanged compliments during the joint interview (“You have the most beautiful smile in the world, you know that,” Goggins told her).
“There is no feud,” Goggins declared. “I adore, I love this woman madly, and she is so important to me. 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 … She is love and I know that I am that to her. We care about each other very deeply.”
As for The Unfollowing, Wood said, “Why is everyone obsessing over Instagram? That is irrelevant. We don’t give a shite about Instagram … Eventually I just started to sit back and watch these people making something out of absolutely nothing.”
Goggins said he was ready to “put this to bed.” He first said that he tends to do a firm goodbye when leaving projects. “When I left Justified … I didn’t talk to [Timothy Olyphant] for almost two years,” he said. “I’ve done that with every single thing that I’ve done.”
Then Goggins noted his real-life history with Thailand, which he’s discussed previously. The actor first visited the country while grieving his wife’s 2004 suicide and then his time on the White Lotus coincidentally returned him to the same location.
“My catharsis in this experience was different than other people’s, because of my history in this place,” the actor explained while “beginning to cry.” “I knew what [Wood and I] 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. 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.”
Added Goggins: “I needed to just back away from everyone. I haven’t spoken to anyone. I couldn’t handle it. Judge me or don’t. I don’t give a fuck 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.”
But then, Goggins reportedly picked up his phone and re-followed Wood on Instagram. “[It was] just a part of me just saying goodbye to this character so that now Aimee and I will be friends for fucking ever,” he added.
