One year ago, Saturday Night Live mocked Aimee Lou Wood with a lazy, tasteless sketch about her teeth. Now, in an impressive power move, she’s set to host SNL UK. It’s sure to be must-watch television, and a masterful resetting of the narrative by Wood. We’ve all dreamt about getting one up on those who’ve hurt us, but what if you could revisit that insulting joke they made about you, and beat them at their own game, on national television? This choice of host has to be the biggest thing to happen on a series that has already reinvigorated the British comedy scene, brought us the greatest Princess Diana impression the world has witnessed, and, most surprisingly, been shared by Donald Trump.
It was in April last year that Wood, her star rising higher and higher following her endearing, heartfelt turn in The White Lotus, first dared to hit back at the long-running comedy institution. Her career was at an all-time high, but there had been a fixation on what she calls her “big gap teeth” that was nothing new for the British actor, who has been bullied about them for years.
In an interview with GQ, she admitted she felt torn about the discussion swirling around her (it was intense: there were orthodontist videos doing the rounds on social media, with experts analysing her teeth). “It makes me really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit,” she said. “The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work… I don’t know, if it was a man, would we be talking about it this much? It’s still going on about a woman’s appearance.”
Then the following week, SNL targeted Wood in a sketch that imagined Trump and his top team spending time at the fictional White Lotus hotel. Wood’s character Chelsea was portrayed by SNL’s Sarah Sherman, who put on an egregious Manchester accent and wore a set of exaggerated fake teeth. At one point, she asked a fellow character: “Fluoride? What’s that?”
The sketch was met with widespread condemnation from fans. Then Wood decided to weigh in herself. Writing on Instagram, she called the skit “mean and unfunny”, and shared a comment from another user labelling the joke misogynistic. She wrote that she was not “thin skinned”, and was happy to be made fun of “when it’s clever and in good spirits”, but that there “must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way” of doing it. “The rest of the skit was punching up,” Wood added, “and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.” After she shared her criticism, cementing herself as a lovable star unafraid to show her vulnerabilities and speak up, Wood received apologies from SNL and flowers from Sherman.
Now, one year on, Wood is hosting the UK edition of the show, and it’s another class move from a star who’s shown she will not hesitate to stand up for herself. In a teaser for Saturday’s episode, Wood turns the teeth mockery on its head. Walking over to the SNL cast, who are all covering their mouths, she tells them, “I cannot wait to get started; you know, especially after the whole ‘thing’ in America with the teeth. So it’s going to feel good to just wipe the slate clean.” She then asks them why they’re hiding their mouths, saying, “Oh my god. Have you guys got fake teeth in?” While the cast insist they haven’t, Wood shouts out, “Wow, this is all just one big setup to humiliate me, then. I thought SNL UK would be different, but I was wrong.” The cast then reveal they have all actually grown “big, glorious moustaches”, and they stick one on her face and pull her into a group hug.
The skit, which crucially is funny, is a powerful play from Wood. And there’s sure to be more where that came from this weekend. For Wood, hosting SNL could be the ultimate catharsis after, as she put it, “being bullied for my teeth forever”. She has spoken before about her paranoia over being too “ugly” to star in The White Lotus, and about how she used to tell herself the myth that her looks were stopping her from getting roles. “I had it in my brain that I’m not conventional-looking enough and that’s a mental barrier I’ve had to overcome,” she said. Finally, by reclaiming the joke and owning the narrative, Wood – and the world – can move on, and focus on her acting.
Because Wood choosing to go on SNL could be just the latest triumph in a string of successes. As the surreal, whimsical Aimee in Sex Education, a role she won a Bafta for, she managed to juggle being hilarious – can we never forget the mouldy pet melon she kept as a childhood pet – and heartbreaking, as she deftly handled a storyline about a sexual assault on a bus. As Chelsea in The White Lotus, the slowly deflating girlfriend of Walton Goggins’ miserable Rick, she was the light to his shade, and the stand-out star of a series full of heavyweights from Parker Posey to Jason Isaacs. At next week’s TV Baftas, she’s up for two awards – one for The White Lotus, and one for the BBC comedy she co-created, Film Club.
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Wood’s arrival on SNL will show how a strong, bold host can make all the difference to a successful series. My bet is that she will take SNL UK to new heights on Saturday, one clever, nuanced joke at a time.
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