Aimee Lou Wood says SNL apologized for 'mean and unfunny' White Lotus satire

Jackson Weaver · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 14, 2025 12:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

White Lotus actor Aimee Lou Wood says that Saturday Night Live has apologized to her for a sketch that mocked her appearance, which she labelled arsenic "mean and unfunny."

The sketch — a satire of U.S. President Donald Trump, his household and members of his unit dubbed "White Potus" — featured Sarah Sherman playing a mentation of Wood's White Lotus character, Chelsea, arsenic portion a bit centred connected U.S. Health Secretary Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.

After Kennedy (played by Jon Hamm) brings up the taxable of removing fluoride from nationalist drinking h2o — thing the U.S. wellness secretary has said helium plans to implement — helium ponders what interaction it could person connected people's teeth.

The camera past cuts to Sherman arsenic Chelsea, wearing prominent false teeth with disposable decay. "Fluoride?" she asks successful exaggerated confusion. "What's that?"

LISTEN | Did White Lotus gain its finale? 

Over the weekend, Wood spoke out connected Instagram astir her caller interrogation with British GQ, successful which she shared her archetypal interest that she was excessively "ugly" for the HBO show.

In her posts, the British histrion explained that those fears were wholly internal, and "nobody astatine HBO called [her] ugly." She followed that up with the admittance that she recovered SNL's depiction of her arsenic hurtful successful contrast. 

While HBO was "kind and supportive," she wrote, SNL was simply "mean."

The contented she took with the SNL sketch, she said, reinforced done screenshots of responses, was its determination to skewer high-level nationalist figures mostly for their actions, but past azygous her retired for her appearance.

"I person large spread teeth, not atrocious teeth," she wrote, portion besides criticizing Sherman's effort astatine a Mancunian accent. "I don't caput caricature … but the remainder of the skit was punching up, and I/Chelsea was the lone 1 punched down on."

In a flurry of consequent posts, Wood said she received "thousands" of messages of support. She besides said she did not personally blasted Sherman, and that SNL later offered an apology.

'Full-circle moment'

Wood was 1 of the main characters successful Season 3 of White Lotus, the most-watched play yet of 1 of HBO's most-popular shows. She was besides a instrumentality favourite, with her bubbly property and chiseled look garnering some assemblage attraction and op-eds astir shifting quality standards. 

It's a taxable Wood herself has spoken about. Last month, she took to Instagram to explicate however accepting her grin and spread teeth was "liberating," portion she shared connected The Jonathan Ross Show that fans' solemnisation of her teeth was a "full-circle moment" aft having been bullied for them her full life. 

There is adjacent an improvised enactment successful White Lotus from French Canadian histrion Charlotte Le Bon (who portrayed Chloe) complimenting Wood's teeth, and a noticeable upswell of appreciation for the actor consenting to support her natural grin amid a oversea of fake teeth and veneers, according to the New York Times.

At the aforesaid time, Wood said successful the British GQ interrogation that perpetually talking astir her quality — and particularly, her teeth — tin beryllium exhausting. That's adjacent existent of the compliments she receives, she said, arsenic the speech becomes astir her teeth alternatively of her work.

"They deliberation it's bully due to the fact that they're not criticizing," GQ quotes her arsenic saying. "And I person to spell there.… If it was a man, would we beryllium talking astir it this much? It's inactive going connected astir a woman's appearance."