The White Lotus‘ Aimee Lou Wood knows you are talking about her teeth — and she doesn’t mind.
Wood got her start on stage in the U.K. with roles in Mary Stuart and People, Places and Things. In 2019, she made her TV debut when she joined Netflix’s Sex Education. Wood’s role as Aimee scored her a British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and she remained on the show until 2023.
Following her success on Sex Education, Wood was cast in the third season of HBO’s anthology series The White Lotus. Wood’s experience in the spotlight didn’t stop her from feeling intimidated by the high-profile project.
“These people live in Hollywood,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2025. “I live in my little flat in South East London, and I’m so British in my sensibility that I wasn’t sure how to handle being around so many people who are so front-footed and confident.”
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Wood specifically addressed the conversations surrounding her scene-stealing teeth, adding, “All I ever do is take the piss out of myself. Even the way [White Lotus fans] are talking about me and my teeth — that I don’t have veneers or Botox — it feels a bit rebellious.”
Keep scrolling for Wood’s most candid quotes about getting to a good place with her self-confidence after hearing commentary regarding her teeth over the years:
How Aimee Lou Wood’s Teeth Affected Her Acting Career
Wood told Stylist in 2020 that she is always “shocked” when she gets callbacks for TV roles, saying, “I’d always be super confident when I went to theatre auditions but if it was a TV thing I’d be so shocked when I got a recall. I sometimes thought, ‘Oh, a Channel 4 thing, I might have a chance on there.’ Then Sex Education came along and I was like, ‘Well, what have I seen on Netflix? Everyone has perfect Hollywood teeth.’”
Working on Her Confidence
The actress recalled feeling like she was not “conventional-looking enough” for certain roles.
“It is a mental barrier I’ve had to overcome,” she told Stylist. “It’s completely in my head. It’s a myth I’ve told myself.” she explained before discussing how she has received “hundreds of messages” from fans. “People going, ‘Oh my god, you’ve got teeth like mine. Now I go to school and people think I’m cool because I look like Aimee.’ Instead of it being Bugs Bunny or whatever.”
Getting Support From an Unexpected Place
Wood credited Georgia May Jagger for allowing her to build more confidence.
“All of a sudden [after she became the face of Rimmel London in 2009] it went from me being goofy to, ‘Oh, you’re a bit of a model, aren’t you?’” Wood told Stylist. “So I want to thank Georgia May Jagger for representing the buck teeth.”
Concerns About Booking Roles
After skyrocketing to fame with The White Lotus, Wood explained why she didn’t expect to play an American on TV.
“It’s the teeth. Like, no Americans have my teeth,” she told On Demand Entertainment in February 2025. “They just don’t. I’d have to get veneers. Because I think that genuinely is like one of the things.”
She added: “[After I played an American in a play] a guy after in the bar was like … he was talking to me, and I spoke to him, and I spoke like this, and he went, ‘I knew it. I knew it.’ Because he was like, ‘Your accent was great, but I knew you weren’t American. You just don’t look American.’”
Inspiring Others to Love Themselves
Wood reflected on her journey in the spotlight, saying in a March 2025 Instagram video, “[My mouth] was the thing that everyone pointed out and it was the thing that made me different. And I’ve never seen an actress on TV with teeth like mine. When Georgia Jagger did the ‘Get the London Look’ and she had the gap teeth, that was a huge moment. I then thought, I am going to put red lipstick on and I am going to draw attention to it.”
Wants to ‘Stop’ Talking About Her 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?” Wood told The Sunday Times in April 2025. “It’s like now I’m just a pair of front teeth.”
While reflecting on fans discussing her teeth and costar Jason Isaac’s full frontal moment, Wood 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.”
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“Someone told me how much Mike had fought for me. They said, ‘It had to be you, no matter what HBO said.’ It was honestly from the nicest place, but my little head goes: ‘HBO didn’t want me. And I know why HBO didn’t want me, it’s because I’m ugly. Mike had to say ‘Please let me have the ugly girl!’” she joked during a GQ interview in April 2025.. “That was the thing that was in my head.”
Wood continued: “The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and then it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work. They think it’s nice because they’re not criticising. And, I have to go there … I don’t know if it was a man that we would be talking about it this much? It’s still going in on a woman’s appearance.”
