Sarah Sherman is giving her side of the Aimee Lou Wood “Saturday Night Live” beef.
Back in April, “SNL” aired a parody of “The White Lotus” featuring Sherman as an extremely unflattering caricature of Wood’s character, Chelsea. In a recent sit-down with Vanity Fair, Sherman says the sketch was not made with any ill intention.
“I was excited to play her because she’s so iconic, her character is so iconic,” Sherman said. “I fucking obviously never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings. Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset. I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad.”
The sketch in question, titled “The White POTUS,” was a pre-taped segment targeted mostly at Donald Trump and his inner circle of constituents. It starred James Austin Johnson as the President, Chloe Fineman as Melania Trump, Mikey Day as Donald Trump Jr. and Jon Hamm as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Chelsea was the only “White Lotus” character featured in the sketch.
In one comedic turn, Hamm’s RFK, outfitted to look like Walton Goggins’ Rick, exclaims, “I’ve been having these insane ideas, like what if we took all the fluoride out of the drinking water? What would that do to people’s teeth?” The camera then cuts to reveal Sherman’s Chelsea, sporting an exaggerated accent and enlarged false teeth. She responds, “Fluoride? What’s that?”
After the episode aired, Wood took to Instagram to express her grievances with her portrayal, calling it “mean and unfunny.”
“Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple of weeks ago,” she wrote. “Yes, take the piss for sure – that’s what the show is about- but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
