‘The White Lotus’: Walton Goggins Faced His ‘Biggest Fear’ for Episode 3’s Snake Scene (VIDEO)

Meaghan Darwish March 2, 2025, 10:00 pm

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The White Lotus Season 3 Episode 3, “The Meaning of Dreams.”]

The White Lotus takes a serpentine turn in its latest Season 3 episode as Rick (Walton Goggins) and girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) explore outside the confines of the titular resort.

On the streets of Thailand, Rick seeks out a drug-induced escape, steering Chelsea towards a snake show after scoring a blunt that sends him on one wild trip. Paranoid and stoned out of his mind, Rick begins talking to the snakes in their tanks and decides he must set them free. This sees Goggins handle the exotic creatures as he opens their enclosures and tries releasing them into the wild.

“It was so fun, it was so weird,” Wood tells TV Insider of the experience filming the sequence. “It was just such an odd day. I was just in a room with loads of snakes for hours and hours and hours with Walton really scared ’cause it’s his biggest fear.”

Aimee Lou Wood and Walton Goggins in 'The White Lotus' Season 3

Fabio Lovino / HBO

This is just the latest occasion in which Goggins has had to handle a snake onscreen following 2019’s Them That Follow. According to Wood, “That’s twice in his career now he’s had to interact with snakes, and he was kind of freaking out and he was having to really go into the whole ‘I’m stoned Rick’ headspace to be able to just pick up this snake because it’s his biggest fear.”

To help combat the nerves, Wood shares, “I was giving him a lot of moral support.”

While Goggins faced his fears, Wood reveals the sequence, which ultimately sees Chelsea get bit by a deadly snake, actually led to her falling over. “When I was running away from [the] snake, I actually absolutely fell flat on my face. It was chaos. It was all chaos, but it felt like a really fun action sequence,” she adds.

Who Will Die on 'The White Lotus' Season 3?

Chelsea’s bite isn’t deadly to her as she is carted off to the hospital in time to be properly treated. Regardless, Wood doesn’t suffer from a similar fear to her costar as she muses, “I’m not scared of snakes at all. I actually quite like snakes and I held a snake, which was really cool.”

Will a snake be the cause of Season 3’s mystery-shrouded death? Or will Chelsea and Rick face the gunshots heard in the season premiere? Only time will tell. For now, see what Wood had to say in the full video, above, and don’t miss The White Lotus on HBO and Max.

The White Lotus, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO & Max