Aimee Lou Wood Compares Calling Out ‘Mean’ SNL Sketch to ‘Breaking a Pattern’ of Bullying

Aimee Lou Wood doesn’t regret calling out Saturday Night Live.

The White Lotus alum, 31, revealed in a new interview with BBC News that she stands behind her decision to label the SNL spoof of her White Lotus character, Chelsea, as “mean and unfunny” in April.

At the time, SNL parodied Wood’s character in a pre-recorded sketch called “White Potus,” where cast member Sarah Sherman appeared with cartoonishly large teeth. Wood later asked on Instagram if there was a “cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way” of poking fun at Chelsea.

Wood now says her decision to call out the sketch was “breaking a pattern.”

“I don’t regret saying it because it was breaking a pattern, which is what I would usually do — what I did when I was younger and got bullied,” she told BBC News in an interview published on Monday, Sept. 29.

“I have a choice here to go in and be embarrassed about it and just say ‘I didn’t like that. It was mean.'”

While promoting her new BBC series Film Club, Wood elaborated that “no matter what chaos came from it, I’m still happy for me and my personal journey that I said something.”

“I’ve gone into meetings with directors that I’ve admired and burst into tears and not been able to say a word and I think that kind of urge is always to correct, to say ‘I’m so sorry that I just did something messy’ and actually you didn’t do anything wrong.”

On April 13, Wood called the SNL sketch “mean and unfunny,” noting that it was “such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks” before. “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 continued.

After her initial call-out, Wood wrote on Instagram that she received “thousands of messages” from supportive fans and “received apologies” from the show.

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In the past, she’s opened up about the conversations surrounding her appearance and her teeth, sharing that she didn’t think she’d land roles on American television. Since her role of Aimee Gibbs on the Netflix hit series Sex Education, however, Wood got “hundreds” of messages from fans, she previously told Stylist in 2020.

“People going, ‘Oh my god, you’ve got teeth like mine,'” she said. “‘Now I go to school and people think I’m cool because I look like Aimee.’ Instead of it being Bugs Bunny or whatever.”

Sherman, 32, told Vanity Fair in May that she felt “terrible” for having hurt Wood’s feelings with the SNL sketch. “I was excited to play her because she’s so iconic, her character is so iconic, and I f—— obviously never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings,” she said.

“Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset. I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad.”

Sherman and Wood have since been able to make amends, with Wood revealing on Instagram that Sherman sent her a bouquet of flowers and apologized following the backlash. “Thank you for the beautiful flowers,” Wood previously wrote over a photo.