While Aimee Lou Wood is grateful for empowering comments about her appearance, she is urging fans of The White Lotus not to try copying her teeth.
Wood, 31, was asked on The Jonathan Ross Show about the support she received surrounding her unique smile in a clip the show shared via TikTok on Sunday, March 23. “It feels so lovely,” she replied. “A real full-circle moment after being bullied for my teeth forever. Now people are clapping in an audience.”
While the actress “can’t believe the impact” her appearance is having on fans, she is hoping others aren’t requesting teeth like hers when going to the dentist. Wood specifically discouraged people so they “don’t start filing their teeth so they have gaps” in her teeth.
Wood has been a scene-stealing presence on season 3 of The White Lotus. While viewers are praising Wood’s appearance now, she previously spoke out about the rocky road to developing self confidence.
“I’d always be super confident when I went to theater auditions, but if it was a TV thing I’d be so shocked when I got a recall,” she told Stylist in 2020. “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.’”
Wood was always “shocked” when there was interest in her playing American roles, adding, “It is a mental barrier I’ve had to overcome. It’s completely in my head. It’s a myth I’ve told myself.”
At the time, Wood recalled receiving “hundreds of messages” from fans that she was not “conventional-looking enough” for certain roles.
“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,” she added before crediting Georgia May Jagger for helping her 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?’ So I want to thank Georgia May Jagger for representing the buck teeth.”
Earlier this month, Wood reflected on her journey in the spotlight, sharing in an 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.’”
