Aimee Lou Wood, a star of The White Lotus, the hit TV show filmed in Thailand, has criticised the US comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live for a skit that mocked her smile, calling it “mean and unfunny”.
The British actress posted on Instagram on Sunday objecting to the sketch, in which SNL cast member Sarah Sherman impersonates Wood’s character while wearing large prosthetic teeth.
“I am not thin-skinned,” Wood, 31, wrote in one of a series of posts on her Instagram account, adding that she loves being joked about when “it’s clever and in good spirits”.
But “the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth,” she wrote.
In a subsequent post, Wood said she had received “apologies” from Saturday Night Live but did not elaborate. Representatives for Wood and NBC, which broadcasts SNL, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The sketch, titled The White POTUS, imagined the show’s characters replaced by President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet. Wood, who is from Manchester, England, also criticised Sherman’s impersonation of her Mancunian accent.
After her initial posts, Wood said she had since received thousands of messages of support. She shared what appeared to be one such message, which said: “It was a sharp and funny skit until it suddenly took a screeching turn into 1970s misogyny.”
The third season of The White Lotus, which concluded this month and was the HBO series’ most popular yet, follows wealthy guests and staff members at a wellness resort in Thailand. Among the guests is Chelsea, played by Wood, a young romantic British woman who is dating an enigmatic older American played by Walton Goggins.
Wood has been celebrated for her natural smile, especially at a time when many celebrities are opting for veneers to achieve “perfect” teeth. But in a recent interview with GQ magazine, she said the news media’s focus on her appearance in coverage of the most recent season of The White Lotus had made her feel uncomfortable, even if the attention was intended to be positive.
“It makes me really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit,” she told the magazine. “The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work.”
She added: “I don’t know if it was a man, would we be talking about it this much?”
- This article originally appeared in The New York Times
