'Saturday Night Live' Female Cast Members React to Viral TikTok Saying Show Doesn’t Hire 'Hot' Women
The TikTok creator has since 'doubled down' on this take.
Published:
6:53 AM PDT, April 5, 2024
The female stars of Saturday Night Live are taking a recent criticism in stride. After a clip went viral on TikTok of a woman claiming that the NBC sketch comedy show has never hired a "hot woman," several of the current female cast members responded.
Comedian Chloe Troast, who is currently in her first season of SNL, stitched the post with a video of herself singing Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful."
She captioned the clip, "no worries if you feel this way ! (ó﹏ò。)"
Sarah Sherman, another regular cast member, reposted the clip on X (formerly Twitter), sarcastically writing, "Just found out i’m not hot. please give me and my family space to grieve privately and uglily at this time."
In user Jahelis Castillo's original video, which was posted on March 21, she insists that the women on the show aren't "ugly" but that they've "never been hot," specifically calling out cast member Heidi Gardner for playing "someone super hot or super dumb."
"No offense to her, but she's not that pretty," claimed Castillo.
Saying Maya Rudolph is the only cast member she thinks is "really beautiful," she called the other female cast members "pretty average-looking women."
The majority of the comments on the original video slam the take, naming a series of female SNL stars that fans view as attractive, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Amy Poehler.
Sarah Sherman as Mary, Chloe Fineman as Mary, and Heidi Gardner as Mother Mary during the Easter cold open on March 30, 2024. - Will Heath/NBC via Getty ImagesEarlier this week, Castillo shared a statement with Newsweek, saying she "never expected that video to go viral," and expressing regret for how she articulated her opinion. However, she condemns the hate she's received in the wake of the post.
"In return for being brave enough to share a peak into what is the magical, colorful wonderland that I call my mind, I have received comments calling me ugly, fat, a trunk full of racially charged insults, etc. (I stopped reading the comments so I'm not sure what other creative ways they've thought to insult me)," Castillo said.
Noting that instead of backtracking, she'd like to "double down."
"Ironically enough, the other half of the comments were people replying, 'SNL doesn't hire hot women because hot women aren't funny,' proving the exact point that I was trying to make in my video. Women are not allowed to be considered sexy, funny and smart the way that men are. They need to pick a thing and stick to it."
Castillo then sarcastically concluded she "would like to apologize to no one and will go on living in a world where apparently Tina Fey looks like Megan Fox."
Will Heath/NBC via Getty ImagesLast month, ET spoke with Rudolph about her time on SNL, where she gushed about the experience.
"I feel like I didn't realize how young we were and I didn't realize how much we got to play together," she shared. "And that's the nicest thing about that network of people. There's so many wonderful people that I'm lucky to have in my life because of that show."
This weekend, Wiig is set to host SNL for the fifth time after previously being a cast member from 2005 to 2012.
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