Please Let Aimee Lou Wood Pay For Dinner

After a breakout season of The White Lotus and an impressive debut at the 2025 Met Gala, you’d think Aimee Lou Wood would be cashing in on her stardom with balmy nights in Ibiza, black-tie yacht parties in Amalfi, and dodging paparazzi in Hollywood. But that’s not quite the case.

“I just want to sleep,” the actor tells NYLON. “I would love some free time, and I will spend that free time doing absolutely nothing except for napping and eating. It's definitely not a Brat Summer for me. Although I am going to Glastonbury. That'll be the liveliest part of my summer.”

In the midst of her downtime, however, Wood will also be catching up with her White Lotus co-star Patrick Schwarzenegger, with whom she stars in a new Venmo campaign. Much like their characters, the IRL friends don’t always see eye to eye, but instead of bickering over love and astrology, they spar over paying the bill. “We both always want to be the ones that pay,” she says. “We're all just too generous.”

To celebrate their reunion, we caught up with Wood to chat about her “peaceful” summer plans, her friendship with Schwarzenegger, and her reaction to that Mike White announcement.

Since summer is on everyone’s mind, I’m curious: What is your drink of the summer?

I'm still undecided. I'm usually an Aperol spritz girl, but I feel like I've overdone it and I need something new. Amaro spritz is also good, that's a slight variant, but I also just love a bit of cucumber water. Water that's infused with cucumber or lemon. I would say Aperol spritz alcohol-wise, and then nice infused water if I'm going to be boring, which is most of the time.

When you're getting drinks with friends, are you more likely to split the bill, or are you putting your card down for everyone?

I'm the person that says, "I'm just going to the loo," and secretly pays. Now my friends follow me to the loo because they don't believe I'm going. Patrick and I definitely have this problem. I took him and his fiancée out for dinner and I did the whole, "Just going to the loo," and then next minute they were both in the restaurant, "No, you're not. You're paying."

What was the last payment you made on Venmo?

The last payment was an attempted one to Patrick, which he refused because that's what he does, for dinner. I want to be able to use it more, but he won't let me pay for things.

What is your song of the summer?

It's called “Charmed” [by Redinho and Σtella] and it's just an absolute vibey summer anthem. I actually love to make playlists for each season as well, so you should follow me on Spotify. Because I've got one that's got a palm tree emoji, and that's a good summer one.

And what are you reading?

I've got into a lot of nonfiction, self-help books, for want of a better word. My friend's just gone, "You really need to get some fiction down you, because you can't always be doing self-improvement." But I think because I read so many scripts and I'm in so many stories and it feels like I crave more nonfiction when I'm reading a book. My friend did just send me a Sally Rooney because she's sick of seeing all my self-help books in my house. I also love reading books on astrology and things like that because that's my passion.

It was announced today that Mike White will be returning to Survivor for the 50th season. How did you react when you heard the news?

I actually knew already, I had some inside information. And you know what? It doesn't shock me because Mike really loves Survivor. He really, really loves it. It's a huge influence in his life, so when I heard he was going back for round two, it didn't actually shock me. I thought, “This is great,” because he really, really loves it.

This has been edited and condensed for clarity.