Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang has expressed his support for Aimee Lou Wood after The White Lotus star ripped into the sketch show for its “mean and unfunny” impersonation of her.
“However she reacted to that sketch is completely valid,” Yang told Extra in a recent interview. “With parody, you kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost that it sort of extols on someone.”
In an April 12 episode, SNL spoofed The White Lotus’ third season by imagining President Donald Trump and his close aides as its characters instead. Cast member Sarah Sherman parodied Wood’s White Lotus character by adopting an exaggerated English accent and prosthetic teeth.
Shortly after the episode aired, Wood slammed the bit for being “mean and unfunny” on her Instagram Stories and wrote: “Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago. Yes, take the piss for sure—that’s what the show is about—but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
Yang described Wood’s reaction as a “reminder” and said that “it seems like she’s spoken to people at the show about it, and hopefully there’s room to move on from it.” After posting about the sketch initially last weekend, Wood said she later received “apologies” from SNL.
“You need those reminders every now and then that parody can go too far sometimes, and that we as comedians can take [accountability] for that instead of banging our foot and saying, ‘We should be allowed to say whatever we want,’” Yang continued.
“Everyone at SNL is just a fan of the show, obviously a fan of her,” he added. “We just think that she should be so proud of the work that she put into this season.”
A few days after posting about the sketch, Wood revealed on Instagram that Sherman had sent her flowers to apologize.
