» ‘White Lotus’ star Aimee Lou Wood slams ‘mean’ ‘SNL’ parody

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White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood says Saturday Night Live has issued an apology after a sketch during Saturday’s show made fun of her appearance.

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In a pre-taped segment, titled The White POTUS, the late-night program spoofed the popular HBO drama with a parody that reimagined various members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle as various Season Three characters vacationing at a resort in Thailand.

Among other guest appearances, Scarlett Johansson was back as Ivanka Trump, with former cast member Beck Bennett returning as a shirtless Vladimir Putin. Previous co-star Alex Moffat also made a cameo as Eric Trump alongside Mikey Day’s Donald Jr.

After appearing in the cold open, James Austin Johnson’s Trump riffed on Jason Isaacs’ White Lotus character, Timothy, as he swallowed dried McDonald’s patties and contemplated the financial meltdown caused by the president’s worldwide tariffs.

Re-casting Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Walter Goggins’ character Rick, SNL host Jon Hamm ranted about taking fluoride out of drinking water. “What would that do to people’s teeth,” he frantically wondered aloud.

Wood’s White Lotus character Chelsea then appeared as played by Sarah Sherman sporting a set of cartoonish buck teeth and said, “Fluoride, what’s that? Oh look, a monkey!”

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But Wood wasn’t a fan of Sherman’s sendup, taking to her Instagram story to criticize the show for making fun of her teeth.

Writing that she was in an “honest mode,” the 31-year-old British actress said she found “the SNL thing mean and unfunny.”

When one follower observed that “everyone else in that parody was a political figure who was being mocked” and the skit was “clearly just taking the piss out of your appearance,” Wood replied, “Correct.”

Wood also addressed speculation that the low-blow was in reference to an interview with British GQ in which she admitted that producers were initially hesitant to cast her in the dark comedy “because I’m ugly.”

“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 outlet recently. “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!’”

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Elsewhere in her GQ profile, Wood said the chatter around her teeth has been exhaustive.

“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 told the magazine.

The Sex Education alum clarified on Instagram that “nobody at HBO called me ugly.”

“I clearly say that was my own paranoid thought…” she added.

On another slide, Wood shared that many White Lotus fans reached out to thank her for not staying quiet about how she was mocked by Sherman. “I’ve got THOUSANDS of messages in agreement with me … So I’m glad I said something instead of going in on myself,” she wrote. 

In other posts, Wood chided Sherman’s imitation by saying, “At least get the accent right seriously, I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.”

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But despite calling the skit “mean and unfunny,” Wood said she wasn’t holding a grudge against the comedienne.

“Not @sarahsquirm’s fault,” Wood wrote, tagging Sherman in her Instagram Stories. “Not hating on her, hating on the concept.”

Wood also said she didn’t want viewers to think she was “thin skinned” and couldn’t take a joke.

“I’m not thin skinned,” she wrote. “I actually love being taken the piss out of when it’s clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth, not bad teeth. I don’t mind caricature — I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.”

Later, Wood revealed that in a rare move the show had reached out to express regret that it chose to make fun of her looks.

“I’ve had apologies from SNL,” she wrote over a selfie in which she applied a big lip filter, concluding the drama.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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