Actress Aimee Lou Wood is reaffirming her decision to speak out against a Saturday Night Live sketch that parodied her character from The White Lotus, saying she has “no regrets” despite the backlash it sparked.
In April, SNL cast member Sarah Sherman portrayed Wood’s character Chelsea in a sketch that exaggerated her appearance with an over-the-top accent and oversized fake teeth, framing the character as the punchline in a joke about fluoride. Wood responded on Instagram, describing the sketch as “mean and unfunny,” and questioning whether a “cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap” approach could have been taken.
In a recent interview with BBC News, Wood explained that publicly expressing her discomfort broke a pattern of staying silent, particularly in the face of bullying. “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 said.
Wood recalled the moment she saw the sketch and made a conscious decision to speak up. “I have a choice here to go in and be embarrassed about it and just say, ‘I didn’t like that. It was mean,’” she said. “No matter what chaos came from it, I’m still happy for me and my personal journey that I said something.”
Following the backlash, Sherman sent Wood flowers and offered an apology, saying she “never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
In a Variety cover story published in June, Wood expanded on her thoughts, saying she believed the sketch’s writing was rooted in misogyny. “The punch line should not be how I look,” she said. “That’s what bothered me. It felt misogynistic… just not funny.”
Wood emphasized that her issue was not with Sherman personally, noting, “I know for a fact a man wrote that. Don’t hate on her.”
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