The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has said that Saturday Night Live has sent her a rare apology after making fun of her appearance during a sketch on the latest episode.
During Saturday night’s episode (12 April), SNL cast members reimagined the hit HBO series The White Lotus as The White Potus. The sketch depicted Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) attempting to unwind at an exotic vacation resort with Ivanka Trump (Scarlett Johansson) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (Jon Gries), while secretly panicking about the future financial state of America due to its tariff policy chaos.
The SNL skit also attempted to recreate the dynamic between Rick (Walton Goggins) and his younger girlfriend Chelsea (Wood), with RFK Jr (Jonn Hamm) rambling about fluoride in water to his confused girlfriend, played by SNL cast member Sarah Sherman, who darts off to kill and eat a monkey.
In the skit, Sherman put on a bizarre British accent (Wood used her own Mancunian accent in The White Lotus) and appeared to be wearing exaggerated prosthetic teeth in an attempt to parody Wood’s appearance.
In a post shared on her Instagram Story on Sunday (13 April), Wood has called the skit “unfunny and mean”.
Wood, 31, has since shared an update with her fans. The Sex Education star wrote in an Instagram story: “I’ve had apologies from SNL.”
She added: “The last thing I’ll say on the matter. I am not thin-skinned. I actually love being taken the p*** out of when it’s clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth. I don’t mind caricature – I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.”
Continuing she said: “Actually one last thing. Not Sarah Sherman’s fault. Not hating on her, hating on the concept.”
She also shared a comment from a fan comparing this skit to “1970s misogyny” saying that “this sums up my view”.
Wood, who rose to prominence for her performance as Aimee Gibbs in Netflix’s award-winning series Sex Education, has been at the centre of a positive conversation surrounding Hollywood beauty standards since she joined The White Lotus.
Her natural teeth have been praised as refreshing amid the perfect-looking veneers that dominate the big and small screens.
