“Saturday Night Live’s” Sarah Sherman says she feels “terrible” about hurting “The White Lotus” star Aimee Lou Wood with an unflattering imitation last month.
The comic explained her intentions while talking about the controversial sketch in a new interview with Vanity Fair, where she said, “I was excited to play her because she’s so iconic, her character is so iconic, and I fucking obviously never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
“Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset,” Sherman added. “I feel terrible that anyone would feel bad.”
The morning after the seemingly ill-conceived parody aired on April 12, Wood told her Instagram followers she found the way the sketch mocked her unique smile “mean” and “unfunny.”
The British actor said she thought that there must have been “a cleverer, more nuanced” and “less cheap way” to satirize the HBO hit without having Sherman wear cartoonish buck teeth and use an exaggerated Manchester accent.
Taking the message to heart, Sherman later apologized by sending the star a bouquet of flowers which Wood posted to her Instagram.
In light of the backlash, Sherman told Vanity Fair how she and her “SNL” castmates have to be careful when poking fun at pop culture.
“Being in conversation with everything popular culture, there’s such a danger there,” she explained. “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.”
Sherman wasn’t the first “SNL” player to reflect on “The White Potus” sketch, which inserted President Donald Trump’s family and several cabinet members into drama at the posh Thailand resort where “The White Lotus” was set this season.
In late April, comedian and podcaster Bowen Yang told “Extra” he thought Wood’s response was “completely valid.”
“With parody, you kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost that it sort of extols on someone,” he said.