Actress Sarah Sherman has broken her silence about her controversial portrayal of Aimee Lou Wood on Saturday Night Live in April.
The skit was a take on The White Lotus, called ‘The White Potus’ and after it went to air Wood slammed it on social media for being “mean” and mocking her appearance.
In the sketch, Sherman appeared with cartoonishly large teeth – to parody Wood’s White Lotus character – something that she admits she feels “terrible” about now.
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Wood’s initial reaction of the parody, which satirised all of the other White Lotus season 3 stars and saw Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump, Beck Bennett as Vladimir Putin and host Jon Hamm as RFK Jr., was that it was a “shame” to see it.
“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 wrote on social media.
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Sherman opened up about the backlash in an interview with Vanity Fair and explained she never meant to upset Wood.
“I was excited to play her because she’s so iconic, her character is so iconic, and I f—ing obviously never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings,” she explained.
“Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset. I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad.”
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She acknowledged that there are some challenges that come with balancing pop culture commentary while being respectful of peoples feelings too.
“Sometimes you just don’t realise how it comes across, but you’re put in a position to be engaging with it all the time, because you are a part of a show that’s constantly interacting with culture and popular politics and popular whatever,” she explained.
“As I get thrown more and more into the show, it’s just this other thing that I have to learn about.”
Sherman explained she’s learned to be “vigilant” about her impact.
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Wood didn’t hold back with her criticism of the SNL sketch.
As she stepped into the spotlight through the role in White Lotus, a lot of comments were made about her teeth, which saw her speak out against people talking about her appearance a lot.
But an apology from Sherman helped to clear the air.
Sherman also sent a bouquet of flowers, which Wood later shared on social media.
“Thank you for the beautiful flowers,” Wood wrote over a photo shared to her Instagram Stories, tagging the comedian.
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