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12 hours ago
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Bowen Yang Addresses Aimee Lou Wood’s ‘The White Lotus' Sketch on SNL
Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang is speaking out in support of The White Lotus' Aimee Lou Wood after she slammed the sketch series' parody of her character.
The April 12 episode of SNL had spoofed the entire HBO show with a sketch titled The White POTUS, which saw fellow cast member Sarah Sherman playing a mock version of the actress' role of Chelsea while wearing a dental prosthetic. Wood, who has spoken before about bullied over her teeth, later wrote on her Instagram Stories that she found the depiction "mean and unfunny."
"However she reacted to that sketch is completely valid," Bowen told Extra in an interview released April 17. "With parody, you kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost."
The 34-year-old continued, "I feel like it's this thing that we tend to forget sometimes, and this is a reminder, and it seems like she has spoken to people at the show about it and hopefully, there's room to sort of move on from it."
The SNL star said that "you need those reminders every now and then, that parody can go far sometimes."
"We as comedians can take account for that instead of banging our foot and saying that we should be allowed to say whatever we want," he said. "Because that's just culture. It's not PC or woke culture, it's just culture."
Bowen added that everyone at SNL is a fan of The White Lotus and of Aimee. "We just think that she should be so proud of the work that she put into this season. It was just water cooler television again, that we desperately have a craving for."
Holland Rainwater / NBC via Getty Images / Leon Bennett/Getty Images
Aimee, 31, has also received support from several other fellow celebs following backlash over the White Lotus parody, for which she also stated last week that she has "had apologies from SNL."
The British star also indicated that Sarah herself had reached out, sharing a photo of bouquet of orange roses and pink carnations on her Instagram Stories April 15 and tagging the sketch performer while writing, "Thank you for the beautiful flowers."
E! News had reached out to reps for SNL regarding the parody and has not heard back.
Prior to starring on The White Lotus, Aimee appeared on shows such as Sex Education and Daddy Issues. Read on to find out where you may have seen the cast of season three of the HBO series before...
HBO; Christopher Polk/Shutterstock
Lalisa Manobal
How you like that? The singer known mononymously as Lisa went from being a rockstar on world stages as part of K-pop group Blackpink—alongside Jisoo, Jennie and Rosé—to donning the White Lotus staff uniform for her big debut as Mook.
HBO; Entertainment Pictures/Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com
Jason Isaacs
Looks like Lucius Malfoy missed the train to Hogwarts and instead landed at The White Lotus. That's right: He may look different without the luscious blond hair, but the Harry Potter star is returning to the screen as another uppity father figure, playing Timothy Ratliff, described as a "wealthy businessman vacationing with his wife and three children."
Isaacs has also made more recent appearances on TV shows like Robot Chicken, The Great and Sex Education (alongside his White Lotus costar Aimee Lou Wood.)
HBO; Moviestore/Shutterstock
Parker Posey
Don't scream when you see it, but Posey—who plays Timothy's wife Victoria Ratliff—may look familiar from her movies Superman Returns, Blade: Trinity, Scream 3 and Dazed and Confused. She's also had brief stints on such TV shows as Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Portlandia and Search Party.
But the real rom-com fans will know her from the 1998 classic You've Got Mail, in which she played Joe Fox's (Tom Hanks) girlfriend Patricia Eden.
HBO; Prime Video
Patrick Schwarzenegger
While you may know him best from family photos as the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, he has already made a name for himself acting in Gen V, The Terminal List and The Staircase before playing Saxon Ratliff in season three.
HBO; Warner Bros. Pictures
Sarah Catherine Hook
Prior to taking on the part of the Ratliffs' daughter Piper, Hook got her feet wet in the horror and fantasy genres, portraying Debbie Glatzel in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Juliette Fairmont in First Kill and Elena Milak in Monsterland.
You may also know her from the 2024 Cruel Intentions remake as Caroline Merteuil or from the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe, in which she played Catherine Allday Davis in Impeachment: American Crime Story about the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal.
HBO; Netflix
Sam Nivola
Nivola—who is dating Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann's daughter Iris Apatow—rounds out the Ratliff family as young Lochlan. But before hitting the shores of Thailand, he was in another show about a rich family at the beach: The Perfect Couple, playing Will Winbury, the son of Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber's Greer and Tag Winbury. He even costarred on the Netflix drama with White Lotus alum Meghann Fahy, who appeared as Daphne Sullivan on season two of the HBO show before playing Merritt Monaco on The Perfect Couple.
Nivola has also acted in White Noise with Adam Driver, Maestro with Bradley Cooper and With/In with Anne Hathaway.
HBO
Natasha Rothwell
Of course, White Lotus fans will recognize Rothwell from season one, in which she played spa guru Belinda in Maui. Not only is she reprising the part for season three, but the actress has also graced the screen in Insecure, Wonka, A Year and Change and Love, Simon. Plus, she lent her comedy chops to Saturday Night Live as a writer from 2014 to 2015.
HBO; Marvel/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
Leslie Bibb
The Iron Man alum is assembling to play Kate in The White Lotus after portraying Christine Everhart in the Marvel franchise. More recently, she starred in Palm Royale as Dinah Donahue and Jupiter’s Legacy as Grace Kennedy-Sampson.
HBO; 20th Century Fox/Regency/Kobal/Shutterstock
Carrie Coon
The Gilded Age star—who may also look familiar from The Sinner, Fargo and The Leftovers—steps into the role of Laurie, who joins pals Kate and Jaclyn for a girls' trip in Thailand this season.
HBO; Kobal/Shutterstock
Michelle Monaghan
While Monaghan plays TV star Jaclyn on The White Lotus, she’s also a TV star IRL, having been on True Detective, Bad Monkey, Messiah and The Path. On the big screen, she's starred as Julia in Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Angie Genaro in Gone Baby Gone.
HBO; Columbia/The Weinstein Company/Kobal/Shutterstock
Walton Goggins
You'll feel justified in knowing that it's not all in your head—Goggins really does look familiar. In addition to starring in two Quentin Tarantino movies (playing Billy Crash in Django Unchained and Sheriff Chris Mannix in The Hateful Eight), he is also known for being Boyd Crowder in Justified from 2010 to 2015.
HBO; Netflix
Aimee Lou Wood
The English actress joins the cast in season three as free-spirited Chelsea, who has an age-gap romance with Goggins' character Rick Hatchett. Yet, she is best known for her role as Aimee Gibbs on Netflix’s Sex Education and also appeared in Seize Them! and Daddy Issues.
HBO; One 31
Lek Patravadi
Her acting credits may trace back 50 years—starting with Grounded God in 1975—but she most recently portrayed Prani Chiraanan on In Family We Trust in 2018.
HBO; C More Entertainment
Tayme Thapthimthong
The singer and former military man has acting credits that include Mechanic: Resurrection, Skin Trade and Paradox, as well as playing Pao on the TV series Farang.
HBO; A24
Christian Friedel
If 13 minutes wasn't enough time to figure out where you recognize the German actor, allow us to refresh your memory. He played Rudolf Höss in The Zone of Interest, Reinhold Gräf in Babylon Berlin and Georg Elser in 13 Minutes.
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