‘White Lotus’ star Aimee Lou Wood calls out ‘SNL’ for ‘mean and unfunny’ skit
White Lotus, meet "White Potus."
It was inevitable that Saturday Night Live would parody The White Lotus — turning HBO's hit drama into a presidential takedown titled "The White Potus," where the uber-rich Ratliff family has been turned into the Trumps, with President Donald Trump bemoaning the market collapse and Don Jr. teaching Eric how to make shakes.
And while the president himself has yet to respond, Aimee Lou Wood — who plays the ill-fated Chelsea on The White Lotus — isn't laughing.
Though she was only seen on screen for a few moments, as portrayed by cast member Sarah Sherman opposite Jon Hamm as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the sketch has caused an online uproar. As Hamm-as-Kennedy said, "I've been having these insane ideas, like what if we took all of the fluoride out of the drinking water? What would that do to people's teeth?" the camera then turned to Sherman-as-Chelsea, who was sporting oversized, bulging front teeth. "Fluoride? What's that?" she said, before bemoaning the fate of the monkey.
Wood took to Instagram to share her hurt feelings, calling the skit "mean and unfunny."
"I am not thin-skinned. I actually love being taken the piss out of when it's clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride," she wrote on her Instagram stories. "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 is punching up, and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.
"At least get the accent right seriously," added the British actress, who first gained fame on the U.K.-produced Netflix series Sex Education. "I respect accuracy, even if it's mean."
When she first posted her Insta Story, she wrote "felt righteous, might delete later," but then Wood followed up and shared that she's been getting thousands of messages of support, sharing screenshots of some of the comments.
"This sums up my view," she said, in response to a commenter who wrote, "It was a sharp and funny skit until it suddenly took a screeching turn into 1970's misogyny."
"I've had apologies from SNL," she later posted, without elaboration.
Watch the full SNL "White Potus" parody below: