Aimee Lou Wood has spoken out in defense of her White Lotus co-star Patrick Schwarzenegger, pushing back against criticism that he landed his breakout role thanks to his famous father.
Schwarzenegger, 31, who starred as finance bro Saxon Ratliffe in the most recent season of HBO’s wealth satire, is one of four children of former California governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ex-wife, journalist Maria Shriver. The Terminator star also has a son, Joseph Baena, whom he fathered with the family’s former housekeeper, Mildred Baena.
During a February appearance on Dear Media’s Real Pod podcast, Schwarzenegger addressed the nepo baby claims he’s faced from people who’ve insisted that he “only got this role cause his dad’s in the industry.”
“There’ll be other people that’ll say, well, ‘I wonder what his dad paid him to get that job,’” the Midnight Sun star said. “You know, what am I going to do? Convince all these people that that’s not true? It’s just such a waste of my energy.
“I’m never, ever going to convince everybody out there that I’m — that I work hard, that I have my own values in life, that I want to make my own name for myself, that I don’t do drugs, that I’m not a screw-up, that I’m not a bad, mean person,” he acknowledged. “Everyone’s always going to have their opinion of you — no matter what.”
In a new Instagram Story, Wood, whose character Chelsea often appeared in scenes opposite Saxon, reshared the particular podcast clip, confirming that Schwarzenegger is the “hardest working and kindest man ever.”
Her steadfast support comes after she and Walton Goggins, who played her on-screen lover Rick in season three, appeared to unfollow each other on Instagram, sparking rumors of a feud.
In a recent interview with The Times, however, Goggins definitively shut down a question about feud speculations, telling the reporter: “I’m not gonna have that conversation,” before insisting that they move on to the next question.
Schwarzenegger was just 10 when he made his on-screen debut as Sports Kid Number 3 in 2006’s family comedy The Benchwarmers, starring David Spade, Rob Schneider and Jon Heder.
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He’s since gone on to appear in 2013’s Grown Ups 2, a single 2015 episode of Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens, and Matt Ogen’s 2017 thriller Go North. Before landing his breakout role in The White Lotus, Schwarzenegger starred in season one of Prime Video’s critically acclaimed superhero drama, Gen V, as well as FX’s sports drama anthology American Sports Story as Tim Tebow.
The term nepo baby — which refers to the successful children of celebrities, whose parents’ famous names and glittering showbiz connections have helped them either become celebrities themselves or become very successful in a related career, gained widespread popularity after Vulture published a series of articles detailing Hollywood’s “nepo-verse.”
Several celebrities, including Big Little Lies’ Zoë Kravitz, British singer-songwriter Lily Allen, Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon, and Maude Apatow, have hit out against the reductive label, with the latter sharing a similar sentiment to Schwarzenegger.
“I try not to let it get to me because I obviously understand that I’m in such a lucky position,” 27-year-old Apatow, the eldest daughter of director Judd Apatow and actor Leslie Mann, told Net-a-Porter in 2022. “A lot of people [in a similar position] have proven themselves over the years, so I’ve got to keep going and make good work.”
