Aimee Lou Wood is calling out “Saturday Night Live,” labeling a spoof of her “The White Lotus” character “mean and unfunny.”
The April 12 episode of the long-running comedy series — hosted by Jon Hamm with musical guest Lizzo — featured a sketch that poked fun at Season Three of “The White Lotus.” The skit, called “The White Potus,” showed Hamm, James Austin Johnson, Chloe Fineman and more cast members portraying various Season Three characters as prominent political figures in an altered version of the HBO dark comedy.
While most leaned into their portrayal of their respective political figures, a couple others channeled specific characters on the show. Lizzo played a version of Natasha Rothwell’s character, Belinda, and comedian Sarah Sherman gave an impression of Wood’s character, Chelsea. Sherman donned a set of fake teeth and attempted a British accent for the role.
“Fluoride, what’s that?” she says to Hamm, who acted as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the sketch.
“Oh, look a monkey!’ she adds before looking confused.
Wood was not a fan of the spoof and shared her reactions on her Instagram story the next morning.
Below a selfie, she wrote on April 13 that she was in an “honest mode,” adding, “I did find the SNL thing mean and unfunny xo.”
She added, “(Felt righteous might delete later).”
Wood shared some of the “thousands” of supportive messages she’s been receiving, including one person saying they also have a gap in their teeth. The user wrote that Wood’s smile has made them more confident in their own appearance.
On another Instagram story, she wrote, “On a positive note, everyone is agreeing with me about it so I’m glad I said something instead of going in on myself.”
“Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago,” she continued in her following post. “Yes, take the piss for sure — that’s what the show is about — but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
She also replied to a couple Instagram users who explained why they didn’t like the portrayal, especially the accent.
“At least get the accent right seriously. I respect accuracy even if it’s mean,” Wood wrote and included a crying-laughing emoji.
She later returned to social media and claimed that the show had reached out to her.
“I’ve had apologies from SNL,” she said.
Beneath the YouTube video of the sketch, more viewers expressed their opinions.
“This is GENIUS. The parallels are so obvious now in hindsight. But they did my poor Aimee Lou Wood so dirty!!” one commented.
Another asked, “How yall gonna do Aimee Lou Wood that dirty.”
A third said the joke about Wood was “mean-spirited.”
Wood’s reaction to the “SNL” sketch came after she also addressed recent headlines about how she doubted herself while filming the show.
In a recent interview with British GQ, she recalled a conversation she had with a “White Lotus” producer after their first week of filming.
“Someone told me how much (creator Mike White) had fought for me. They said ‘it had to be you, no matter what HBO said.’ It was honestly from the nicest place, but my little head goes: ‘HBO didn’t want me,’” she told the magazine. “And I know why HBO didn’t want me, it’s because I’m ugly. Mike had to say ‘Please let me have the ugly girl!’”
Wood clarified on her Instagram story April 13 that no one at the network had called her “ugly” following reports about her comments. “I clearly say that was my own paranoid thought…” she said.
She explained that she “spiraled” after the conversation due to her “own imposter syndrome.”
“So to conclude today’s rant: @hbo — kind and supportive and never wronged me so leave them alone,” she wrote. “@nbcsnl — mean.”
