Leo Woodall says Jennifer Coolidge ‘scared the life’ out of him on White Lotus

By Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter

British actor Leo Woodall said Jennifer Coolidge “scared the life” out of him during an improvisation scene for series two of The White Lotus.

The 27-year-old actor, who stars in the new Netflix adaption of David Nicholls’ book One Day, is also known for playing Jack in the hit dark comedy drama which follows guests and staff of the fictional White Lotus hotel chain.

In the show, he stars opposite American Pie actress Coolidge, 62, who has won two supporting actress Emmys for her role as Tanya McQuoid-Hunt.

Speaking to The One Show on Monday, Woodall said: “She’s (Coolidge) a masterful improviser and it scared the life out of me.

“My first day on set, speaking, was this dinner scene and I think at the top of the scene, someone’s collapsed in the background and we were told to improvise, so I made up a joke at this guy’s expense.

“And she kind of went, in character, ‘No, you can’t say that. No’.

“I was like a deer in the headlights.

“And afterwards I thought, ‘Oh God. Jennifer hates me.’

“She’s just so great. A great actor.”

Woodall appeared on the BBC One programme to speak to hosts Jermaine Jenas and Alex Jones about the upcoming romance series One Day, in which he stars alongside This Is Going To Hurt actress Ambika Mod.

He described his character Dexter as a “fun loving, ambitious young man”.

His co-star Mod said she watched the Channel 4 documentary-style show Educating Yorkshire to try and perfect a northern accent for her role as Emma.

“Towards the end of the audition process, I was awaiting to hear if I was going to get it (the role),” she said.

“And I got a call from my agent saying ‘They love you. They really want but they’re just not sure about the accent. So we need you to be signed off by a dialect coach.’

“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, my life is in this woman’s hands.’

“I met her, I had a Zoom meeting with her scheduled for a Saturday evening.

“So I spent the whole day just bingeing Educating Yorkshire.”

She added: “And then I met her in the evening and we had our session together and she was like, ‘I don’t really know what they want from you, you can clearly learn the accent so I’m just gonna tell them that and they should give it to you’.”

“So thank you Educating Yorkshire,” she added.