Actress Aimee Lou Wood called out Saturday Night Live for airing a “mean and unfunny” sketch parodying her character on HBO’s The White Lotus.
In a series of Instagram Stories posts Sunday, Wood got candid about how the SNL sketch, aired April 12, made her feel. The whole thing was “mean and unfunny,” she wrote.
“Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago,” the actress wrote in another slide.
“Yes, take the piss for sure — that’s what the show is about — but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
The sketch, titled “The White Potus,” imagined President Donald Trump, several of his family members and close aides visiting The White Lotus hotel in Thailand, placing them in similar scenarios to those seen in the show’s third season.
While most of the sketch featured satirized versions of Trump’s inner circle, cast member Sarah Sherman played a parody of Wood’s White Lotus character by putting on an exaggerated English accent with prosthetic teeth.
“I’ve been having these insane ideas, like what if we took all the fluoride out of the drinking water? What would that do to people’s teeth?,” Jon Hamm as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asks in the sketch.
“Fluoride? What’s that?” Sherman, as Wood, replies.
Shortly after posting her qualms with the sketch, Wood posted another Instagram Story thanking her followers for their support.
“On a positive note, everyone is agreeing with me about it, so I’m glad I said something instead of going in on myself,” the Sex Education star said, later posting screenshots of direct messages she received from fans also criticizing the sketch.
“Everyone else in that parody was a political figure who was being mocked. The only character who wasn’t political was Chelsea, and they were clearly just taking the piss out of your appearance,” one message read, to which Wood replied, “Correct.”
Another fan criticized Sherman’s “terrible” accent, which Wood agreed with. “At least get the accent right, seriously. I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.”
A few hours after first posting about the sketch, Wood then gave an update saying she’s received “apologies from SNL.”
Representatives at SNL did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The actress recently opened up about the constant comments on her teeth, telling GQ in an interview published last week: “It makes me really happy that it’s symbolizing rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit.”
“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,” she added. “They think it’s nice because they’re not criticizing. And, I have to go there… 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.”
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