{"id":6849,"date":"2021-11-06T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1488646"},"modified":"2021-11-06T10:25:11","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T09:25:11","slug":"sex-educations-aimee-lou-wood-on-her-season-4-hopes-and-her-new-role-in-channel-4s-on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/sex-educations-aimee-lou-wood-on-her-season-4-hopes-and-her-new-role-in-channel-4s-on-the-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex Education\u2019s Aimee Lou Wood on her season 4 hopes and her new role in Channel 4\u2019s On the Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lauren Morris\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 06 November 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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There aren\u2019t too many actors who can say they share a name with their best-known character, but Aimee Lou Wood \u2013 the star of Sex Education<\/a> \u2013 is one of them. \u201cShe has kind of stolen my name,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cMost people are talking to Aimee Gibbs, not to me, when they talk to me so it\u2019s a weird thing to get your head around. More people know Aimee Gibbs than they know me \u2013 like millions more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 40 million to be more exact, so it came as no surprise to viewers when Aimee Gibbs \u2013 the slightly dim but loveable baking enthusiast of Moordale Secondary \u2013 made Wood a star overnight after the Netflix teen drama premiered back in 2019. Aimee quickly became a fan-favourite with her hugely quotable lines and vagina-covered cupcakes, and while the role won Wood a BAFTA earlier this year, she admits the name-stealing is \u201ckind of annoying\u201d as we speak over Zoom on a Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Lou Wood\u2019s latest role in Channel 4\u2019s upcoming anthology drama On the Edge doesn\u2019t add another Aimee to her acting r\u00e9sum\u00e9. The 26-year-old stars in the show\u2019s stand-alone first episode Mincemeat as Jane, a young woman trying to find independence whilst living with an overbearing and controlling mum (played by Worzel Gummidge\u2019s Rosie Cavaliero). The rising star is just as bubbly and chatty as her Netflix namesake whilst Zooming from her South London home, although the character\u2019s blonde, \u201970s-style curls are gone, with Wood sporting a chic, brunette lob.<\/p>

\u201cI think [Jane] is highly relatable. She\u2019s got this mother who takes up both the physical space \u2013 she hoards \u2013 and Jane has to make herself so small to fit into her mum\u2019s life, and also all the emotional space and Jane is left with nothing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The episode, written and directed by Samantha O\u2019Rourke and Nadira Amrani respectively, opens with Jane and her mother Carol filling a shopping trolley full of processed meat before joylessly celebrating the birthday of her late father<\/a> over a plate of meat stew. That\u2019s when Jane decides she wants to become a vegetarian, resulting in Carol\u2019s first (of many) emotionally abusive rants towards her daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s basically her mum\u2019s support system and it\u2019s all she\u2019s ever really known since her dad died,\u201d Wood adds. \u201cIt\u2019s about a person who is figuring out who they are when they wring out the sponge, wring out all this stuff that they\u2019ve absorbed from other people. Who are they underneath that? And what do they believe in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Aimee\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Aimee Lou Wood in Mincemeat<\/span><\/figcaption> Channel 4<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Mincemeat isn\u2019t just a coming of age story centred around a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship however \u2013 it turns into a romance when Jane bumps into former classmate Nish (Nikhil Parmar). \u201cI think for the first time she feels like herself when she is around him. It is a love story and I just absolutely love love stories and rom-coms when they\u2019re done well \u2013 it\u2019s the best thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without spoiling too much, Mincemeat takes a turn when some of Carol\u2019s abhorrent views are revealed to the viewer and we watch as Jane tries to drown out her mother\u2019s loud opinions to establish some of her own.\u00a0\u201cShe\u2019s really a personification of an ideology that is hateful, she\u2019s an embodiment of all these horrible systemic issues,\u201d Wood says of Carol. \u201cI think it\u2019s just a really important story. It\u2019s important to be reminded that in the kind of echo chamber that I\u2019m in, that people actually have those views still.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople actually still need to be challenged and systems need to be dismantled that are literally poison. I think I find because of my friends and the world that I\u2019m in, I forget that and then it\u2019s like, \u2018No, that is still rife,’\u201d she adds. \u201cJane is of this younger generation but she doesn\u2019t realise that she\u2019s inherited so much of this from her mum because she hasn\u2019t had any space to detach and figure out what she believes in. I think what\u2019s powerful about this story is that Jane is breaking the cycle and it\u2019s really sad but it\u2019s also quite hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite preparing to start production on Living, a film in which she stars alongside Bill Nighy, Wood decided to take on Mincemeat after loving Jane\u2019s character arc (\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to really flex all those acting muscles\u201d) and learning that the character was a vegetarian. \u201cI\u2019m actually vegan so that was another thing about Jane that I was like, \u2018Oh cool!’\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Nikhil\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Nikhil Parmar and Aimee Lou Wood in Mincemeat<\/span><\/figcaption> Channel 4<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Much like her role on Sex Education, the 10-day shoot involved a lot of eating, although Wood managed to avoid any of the titular grub featured in Mincemeat. \u201cI was moving stuff around my plate a lot but when it was the plain pasta, I ate so much of it because one thing that really annoys me in TV and films is when it\u2019s a dinner scene, but nobody eats.\u201d Although, the Manchester-born star learnt the hard way why few actors dine out on set food. \u201cYou take that one bite and then you\u2019ve got to do it every time for continuity. When I played Aimee and I\u2019d make flapjacks in Sex Education, I started the scene by taking big bites of these flapjacks. By take nine, I was still eating, I just felt so sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2017, Wood was asked to audition for Sex Education in the role of Lily, which was eventually played by Tanya Reynolds \u2013 so it\u2019s a complete coincidence that she eventually landed the role of her namesake Aimee Gibbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wish she was named after me but actually, she was just called Aimee. I got this thing through saying, \u2018Do you want to audition for Aimee?\u2019 and it was spelled A-i-m-e-e, and then I read her sides and I thought, \u2018Oh my god, this is fate.\u2019 I think it can get a little bit close for comfort. On set, I get called Woody because my director Ben [Taylor] has just always called me Woody so there\u2019s some kind of separation there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series recently returned for its third season after facing a number of COVID-related delays. \u201cIt was quite weird,\u201d Wood says of filming during the pandemic. \u201cI think we were one of the first productions to go back as well and we were being tested constantly. I think we were just so grateful to be there and, you know, crew members especially have made such big changes and sacrifices in their lives in order to be there and get that show done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season three ended with Aimee breaking up with long-time boyfriend Steve (Chris Jenks) and slowly regaining her confidence after being sexually assaulted on a bus in season two \u2013 and fans aren\u2019t the only ones itching to find out what will happen in season four. \u201cI actually spoke to Laurie [Nunn] a bit about some stories because I\u2019m so excited. I just really wanted to know what\u2019s going to happen with Aimee next and everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be really weird because Moordale\u2019s gone so it\u2019s going to be a very different feeling I think to how it has been,\u201d she says. \u201cProbably in a really good way because I think they are growing up. Season three felt a lot more grown up and I think it\u2019s going to go even further in season four.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Aimee\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Aimee Lou Wood, Emma Mackey and Chris Jenks in Sex Education<\/span><\/figcaption> Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

With Moordale shutting down and the students entering their last year of education, it does beg the question \u2013 could the hit Netflix series be coming to an end soon? \u201cThere\u2019s a part of me that could just do it forever but there\u2019s also a part of me that\u2019s like no, we\u2019ve all got to go and do different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t be 50 saying, \u2018Freshers Week!\u201d she adds. \u201cIt\u2019s a bittersweet thing. Even if it\u2019s not this series, it probably is closer now to ending than it is to the start, which is sad but also probably in many ways, will be very positive. I always think leave them wanting more as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

More importantly, with Aimee and Steve no longer together, who\u2019ll be getting custody of their goat? \u201cIt has to be Aimee, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d Wood says. \u201cBut then I also feel bad because it\u2019s like, poor Steve. What\u2019s he left with? A broken heart and no goat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans weren\u2019t the only ones fighting for the couple, as Wood reveals that she asked the show\u2019s producers if they could be reunited in season four. \u201cI was saying a lot to our directors, \u2018Do they have to split up?\u2019 And then we were so sad on the day because we\u2019re the only couple that\u2019s lasted from season one.<\/p>\n

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