Sarah Sherman is clearing up her controversial portrayal of Aimee Lou Wood on Saturday Night Live.
The comedian, 32, addressed her part in playing the actress, 31, on an April 12 episode of SNL in a sketch titled “The White Potus.” At the time of the episode’s release, Wood took to social media and slammed the late night show for their “mean” blows and admitted to having her feelings hurt after Sherman appeared with cartoonishly large teeth in an effort to parody her White Lotus character, Chelsea.
In Wood’s initial post reacting to the skit — which satirized 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. — the actress said it was 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?” she wrote.
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Aimee Lou Wood (left) and Sarah Sherman
In an interview published on May 13, Sherman told Vanity Fair that she felt “terrible” for having hurt Wood’s feelings.
“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 explained. “Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset. I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad.”
The Chucky alum added that there were challenges in balancing pop culture commentary while still being respectful of other’s feelings.
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Aimee Lou Wood on ‘The White Lotus’ season 3
“Being in conversation with everything popular culture, there’s such a danger there,” Sherman said. “Sometimes you just don’t realize 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.”
“As I get thrown more and more into the show, it’s just this other thing that I have to learn about,” she continued, noting how she’s learned to be “vigilant” about her impact while also “being a part of the show.”
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Despite the initial backlash, Sherman and Wood have been able to make amends. At the time, Wood revealed that Sherman had sent her a bouquet of flowers and apologized.
“Thank you for the beautiful flowers,” Wood wrote over a photo shared to her Instagram Stories, tagging the SNL comedian.
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