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The White Lotus Star Aimee Lou Wood Defends Sarah Sherman Over SNL’s ‘Mean’ Parody: ‘Not Hating…’
Aimee Lou Wood is setting the record straight—her criticism of Saturday Night Live's White Lotus parody was not directed at cast member Sarah Sherman.
After calling out the sketch for being “mean and unfunny,” Aimee Lou Wood took to Instagram to make it clear that her issue lies with the concept, not the performer. Sherman portrayed a caricature of Wood’s character, Chelsea, from The White Lotus Season 3 in a parody imagining Donald Trump as part of the HBO series. While Wood wasn’t thrilled with the sketch, she emphasized she’s “not thin-skinned” and actually enjoys satire—when it’s done right.
“The joke was about fluoride,” she wrote. “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 was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.” In a follow-up post, Wood added, “Not [Sarah Sherman’s] fault. Not hating on her. Hating on the concept.”
The parody, which has now surpassed 3.7 million views on YouTube, featured James Austin Johnson as Trump, Jon Hamm as RFK Jr., and Sherman as Chelsea. Despite the viral reach, Wood questioned whether the sketch could’ve been more nuanced and clever. Still, she ended her comments with grace, acknowledging the overwhelming support she received online while standing by her critique—minus any personal shade.
The White Lotus sketch, a pre-taped segment from SNL, reimagined the HBO series as a luxury resort getaway for Donald Trump and his inner circle amid global economic chaos. James Austin Johnson played Trump navigating awkward family dynamics and political paranoia. Chloe Fineman portrayed Melania Trump, while Mikey Day took on Donald Trump Jr. and Jon Hamm appeared as a bizarre version of RFK Jr., styled after Walton Goggins’ Rick from The White Lotus Season 2.
The most controversial moment came when Hamm’s character, in a paranoid rant about fluoride in drinking water, questioned its effect on teeth—cut to Sarah Sherman’s Chelsea, exaggerated with cartoonishly enlarged fake teeth, saying, “Fluoride? What’s that?” The parody aimed to satirize political absurdity through White Lotus-style vacation dysfunction, but Aimee Lou Wood took issue with how her character was the only one mocked without political context.
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