“Watching someone’s light be drained is heartbreaking”: Aimee Lou Wood on Dracula, literary loves and her next great read

Viewers may know her as Aimee in Sex Education and Chelsea in The White Lotus, but Aimee Lou Wood’s talents extend far beyond the screen. Yes, she’s about to put her own spin on Jane Eyre for the BBC, and she’s playing Pattie Boyd in the upcoming Beatles biopics. She’s also a screenwriter herself, having written and starred in cosy romcom Film Club, her BBC debut.

It’s this deep passion for examining a text, understanding a character and really getting under their skin that makes Wood the all-round performer she is today. “I tend to lean toward reading prose rather than listening to it because, as a writer, I like to be able to see, learn from and dissect the architecture,” Wood tells Stylist. “However, when it’s an audio drama that’s mainly dialogue, it’s more like the experience of a film or play.”

Although Wood recorded her dialogue solo this time, one of her previous projects offered a more collaborative experience. “I loved doing Car Crash for Audible because Alfie [Alfred Enoch] and I were in the room together the whole time. It felt so cool that we were able to essentially make a whole sitcom in a few days! That’s the great thing about audio… you get the experience of creating full, satisfying scenes and performances at such an exciting pace. [It has] depth and breadth. With no waiting around, you can get stuck right in.”

Here, Wood discusses how she found her own interpretation of Lucy in Dracula, the literary character she’d love to play next and her next great reads – including the book she’s currently reading and the last one that made her cry.

She’s in love with and moved by the world

Credit: Audible

What was it about the character of Lucy that drew you to Dracula?

Lucy is a very cracked-open and heart-led person. She has an intimacy with life itself and all the people in it. She has a kind of boundless love, which is why her connection to Mina is undefinable: is it friendship? Is there romance? I think it’s that she’s someone who loves in a way that doesn’t have confines. She loves Arthur, the doctor, her mum, the sea, her neighbours, the trees, the animals. She’s in love with and moved by the world. This is why she is, sadly, also so vulnerable to the all-consuming darkness that comes for her. I found this so tragic because she reminded me so much of people whose openness is exploited. Their optimism, life-force and the sheer brightness of their beam is what can attract these literal and metaphorical vampires. Also how much that pains those who love them; watching someone’s light be drained is heartbreaking.

How does voice acting differ from screen or stage work?

You can sort of walk around in your own imagination when doing voice work. Especially after you’ve been in the studio for a while – it starts to feel like a den you’d make as a child, which can be a portal to any place and story. The lack of external anchors encourages you to create your own internal landscapes. At first, I can find it quite lonely because I am obsessed with the feeling of connection that comes from being fully with your scene partners. I mean, I even struggle talking on the phone – I’d much rather just go and see the person. But, like a good long phone call, once I surrender to the limits, I start being able to find the intimacy within them.

Did you get to record with Ella Purnell or any of your other castmates, or were you working separately?

We worked separately, but our magical director Mary Lambert made sure she was holding a consistent atmosphere and world in place for all of us. We had truly remarkable voice actors – their dexterity in flipping between all the different characters was so impressive. Mary would also play as much audio from the castmates who had recorded prior to me, so I had a good grip on the texture and pace they were bringing. The great thing about audio is that, because it’s right there in your ears, it feels so immediate and close. It’s really cool listening back and hearing how we truly sound like we’re all in the room together.

Credit: Audible

Is there a literary character you’d love to voice next?

I absolutely loved doing Lucy’s monologues – it felt so good to get to perform such substantial chunks of dramatic text, which you often only get to do in theatre. It’s rare to get a long, twisty-turny monologue in which you can conjure vivid imagery on screen, because so much can be expressed visually – or it’s expressed in dialogue. So, I think I’d love to do a Shakespeare. Viola from Twelfth Night or Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing or Imogen from Cymbeline – or maybe I even go all out and do Hamlet. Hamlet himself, though, not Ophelia. And if I were reading prose, I would love to do something like The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe or James And The Giant Peach because it would be so fun doing all the characters. 

If you could only reread one book for the rest of your life, which would it be?

The Staying Alive poetry collection by Neil Astley, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë or Tao Te Ching by Laozi – I’d maybe even cheat a little and do The Complete Works Of Shakespeare.

What are you currently reading?

I just finished an incredible book called Love’s Labour by Stephen Grosz. He’s an exceedingly wise and compassionate psychoanalyst and brilliant writer. I loved his book The Examined Life, which became an invaluable guide for life. Love’s Labour is his new release, and it homes in specifically on what it really means to love as a verb rather than just as a feeling. 

I was sobbing by the end of it

What’s the last book that made you cry?

Love’s Labour – I was sobbing by the end of it. Also My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley destroys me and Notes To Self by Emilie Pine.

If someone looked at your reading history, what would it tell them about you?

Probably that I like poetry and the mythic to exist at the same time as [the] everyday. I love writers who manage to find the balance between highly recognisable and true-to-life characters and the cosmos.

Are there any book-to-screen adaptations you’d absolutely love to be part of?

Jane Eyre! Which is happening, and I’m unbelievably excited about. I’d also love someone to turn any of Nan Goldin’s photography books into a film. I love her so much and would play any of her amazing friends whom she captures so beautifully in her work.