Aimee Lou Wood has set the record straight after paparazzi photos of her crying in London sparked speculation about her reaction to a controversial Saturday Night Live sketch.
The White Lotus star took to Instagram to clarify that her tears were unrelated to the SNL controversy that had made headlines days earlier.
“I actually wasn’t crying about anything that the papers made out,” Wood wrote on her Instagram Story. “I was crying about something completely unrelated.”
The 31-year-old actress was photographed visibly upset on the streets of South London on Monday, being comforted by House of the Dragon actor Ralph Davis.
Images published by several outlets showed Wood sobbing into Davis’s chest while wearing a baseball cap and red leather jacket.
The timing of these emotional scenes, coming just days after the SNL controversy, led many to assume a connection between the two events.
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Davis, who recently collaborated with Wood on co-writing the upcoming BBC series Film Club, was seen embracing her as she wept openly.
The controversy began when SNL aired a sketch called “The White Potus” on Saturday, April 12, parodying the plot of The White Lotus season three.
Cast member Sarah Sherman portrayed Wood’s character Chelsea with exaggerated prosthetic teeth and what Wood later described as a “bizarre British accent”.
Wood responded the following day on Instagram, calling the skit “unfunny and mean”.
The White Potus
♬ original sound – Saturday Night Live – SNL
“Yes, take the piss for sure — that’s what the show is about — but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?” she wrote.
Wood clarified the situation by reposting a fan message that suggested she had been “reduced to tears because of people tearing into her appearance”.
She added a laughing-crying emoji alongside her explanation that the tears were about “something completely unrelated”.
On Monday, the same day she was spotted crying, Wood had informed her followers that she’d received “apologies from SNL”.
She described this as “the last thing I’ll say on the matter”, noting that she is “not thin-skinned” but felt the joke about her teeth missed the mark.
In her Instagram posts, Wood further elaborated on her stance regarding the SNL sketch.
“I have big gap teeth, not bad teeth,” she wrote. “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.”
She also made clear she wasn’t blaming Sherman personally for the portrayal.
“Not Sarah Sherman’s fault. Not hating on her, hating on the concept,” Wood concluded.
