By BRIAN GALLAGHER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 01:32 BST, 15 May 2025 | Updated: 01:33 BST, 15 May 2025

The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has been making headlines of late after a controversial Saturday Night Live sketch, and now she’s starring along an A-lister.

The 31-year-old actress played Chelsea in Season 3 of HBO’s The White Lotus, the girlfriend of Walton Goggins’ character Rick.

Now she’s capitalizing on that performance by joining Angelina Jolie in the new film Anxious People, according to Deadline. 

The project will be directed by Marc Forster (World War Z), from the 2019 novel of the same name by Fredrik Backman (A Man Called Ove).

Forster previously adapted Backman’s A Man Called Ove into the 2022 film A Man Called Otto, starring Tom Hanks.

The director will also reunite with David Magee, who adapted A Man Called Otto and Forster’s 2004 film Finding Neverland.

The film is set the day before Christmas Eve, when and investment banker named Zara (Jolie), ‘begrudgingly finds herself mingling with a group of strangers at an open house.’

Wood plays, ‘a reluctant bank robber’ named Grace, who inadvertently takes the strangers hostage as chaos ensues.

Nothing ultimately goes to Grace’s plan as secrets are revealed and oversharing ensues in the film.

The story is, ‘about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.’

It remains unclear if any of the strangers have been cast at this time, and there is no indication yet when production may begin.

Hope Studios’ Fredrik Wikström Nicastro and2DUX2’s Renée Wolfe, who both produced A Man Called Otto, will produce this adaptation as well.

Director Forster and writer Magee will also produce the film, with Neda Backman executive-producing the project.

The book was previously adapted as a Swedish TV series for Netflix in 2021, starring Alfred Svensson and Dan Ekborg. 

Wood previously won a BAFTA award for her hit 2019 Netflix comedy series Sex Education.

She also starred in films like Uncle Vanya, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Living and Seize Them.

The actress most recently starred in Netflix’s Toxic Town from Adolescence creator Jack Thorne and Daddy Issues with David Morrissey (The Walking Dead).

She also has a project called The Idiots in pre-production, where she’s set to star alongside Johnny Flynn (Ripley). 

:
Aimee Lou Wood joining HUGE A-List star in film role after White Lotus toothgate controversy

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