Filming has ended for the day and the crew of The White Lotus season 3 make their way off the Four Seasons Koh Samui’s beach to take much-needed showers before dinner. Moving against the tide is cast member Patrick Schwarzenegger accompanied by his brother, Christopher, and mother, Maria Shriver, who have just jetted in and are getting a tour of the set.
A smiling Schwarzenegger spots Aimee Lou Wood and rushes to introduce his family to his co-star, who breaks into her own trademark toothy grin. “I had a dream last night that I told Patrick’s mom what a lovely guy he is and now I get to do it in person,” she gushes.
It’s unclear whether Wood is aware that “Patrick’s mom” is member of an American political dynasty—niece of John F. and Bobby Kennedy as well as a former First Lady of California—though the Manchester-born 30-year-old is unlikely to have modified her disarmingly breezy greeting either way.
Already one of British television’s brightest rising stars after her award-winning turn on the Netflix hit Sex Education, Wood has a plum role as Chelsea, the floaty though street-smart girlfriend of Walton Goggin’s misanthropic grifter, in Lotus Season 3. It’s a role, she freely admits, that she feels perfectly attuned to.
“[Chelsea is] a bit otherworldly, she’s obsessed with astrology, which is like me,” Woods told TIME on set last June. “She’s a die-hard romantic, which is also me, so she’s crazy in the best way.”
It’s a character that Wood says was a joy to play because of the peerless creative prowess of Mike White, who writes and directs every episode of Lotus, and first conceived of the hit black comedy rooted in the frictions between pretentious guests and oppressed staff in a luxury resort some two seasons, four years, and almost 10 million viewers ago.
“Mike is so wonderful at those dinner conversations,” says Wood. “All the best bits of White Lotus to me are when everyone’s just sat around, the tension, the tautness of the dialogue. I love the days where I get hours to do one long, two-hander scene.”
It’s appreciation that clearly cuts both ways. “Aimee Lou Wood is hilarious,” White told TIME when asked which characters will drive the comedy of his new season.
Read More: Natasha Rothwell on What to Expect From Her Beloved Character in The White Lotus Season 3
Adding to Wood’s authenticity is that she has retained her broad northern English accent for the role of Chelsea,whereas fellow Brit co-star Jason Isaacs has adopted a southern drawl for his part. Wood sent in two audition tapes—one in an American accent and one in her own—and was delighted when White opted for the latter. “It’s great!” he laughs. “I didn’t think they would say ‘keep the northern’ because it’s so specific.”
Despite the unrelenting heat, which left the show’s make-up artists at their wit’s end due to their sunburnt cast, Wood found shooting Lotus a deeply rewarding experience. “I especially love Koh Samui,” she says. “My whole inner tempo changed. I don’t have to have that urgency culture here. I can slow down.”
Although being away from friends and family for months on end grew tiring for a self-professed “homebird.” It was a dynamic heightened by the intimacy of the surroundings, with all the cast and crew living and working in the same resort. “Once I came down for breakfast and found Mike and all the crew walking past because the set was two steps from my room!” she says. “So it’s like The Truman Show. Even times like days off, maybe you’re on the beach, but there’s cameras, there’s lights.”
“I feel like I’m going to be very robust when I come out of this—shaking things off and separating [work from life], which I find hard anyway.”
It isn’t the only aspect of filming Lotus that has proven challenging. Wood has been outspoken about her struggles with eating disorders and body self-image, and spending months on end surrounded by beautiful costars in bathing suits proved a real test. “It’s so hard,” she says. “What’s been really helpful is that Chelsea, my character, is so free. So whenever I’m having those kinds of insecurities, I always just tap into, ‘Chelsea doesn’t care, I can’t care.’”
And despite Lotus catapulting her to an entirely new strata of global fame, Wood says she’s reluctant to make the move to Hollywood, fearing she’d miss friends and family too much. She has recently completed filming the gritty Netflix drama Toxic Town, which is based on a true story about a group of British mothers’ fight for justice after the poisoning of their children led to a spike of birth defects.
When Wood sat down with TIME she had never even set foot in Los Angeles. “I don’t think I’ll move to Hollywood,” she says. “But I think the screening of [Lotus] will be in L.A. so I’m going to go. And I’ve got loads of friends there now.”
