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Louise Thomas
Editor
Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang has claimed that Sydney Sweeney begged the cast to “make jokes about my boobs” when she hosted the show earlier this year.
The 27-year-old Euphoria and Anyone But You actor hosted SNL in March this year where she made jokes about rumours surrounding her and Glen Powell and her part in superhero flop Madame Web.
Although Sweeney’s hosting appearance was mostly viewed as a success there was some pushback about the multiple gags and sketches about her physical appearance, including one where she worked as a Hooters waitress.
However, Yang has now stated that many of the ideas for jokes came from Sweeney herself who claimed: “She was practically begging everybody.”
Speaking on the Fly on the Wall podcast, Yang said Sweeney was “an example of a host who came in and understood how she was being consumed and perceived already”.
He added: “She came in and was like, ‘Please, everyone, make jokes about my boobs.’”
Sweeney’s SNL appearance bizarrely became a political talking point with one right-wing commentator writing a think piece called: “Are Sydney Sweeney’s breasts double-D harbingers of the death of woke?”
Commenting on the debate, the Immaculate actor told NME that “there’s not anything I can do” about the obsession with her appearance.
Asked if it made her want to stay off the internet, she responded: “Um, no, I think it’s important to be aware of everything and then use that information however I may well. But I’m just being me, that’s all.”
This echoed the thoughts that she shared in an interview with Variety published on 18 March, Sweeney admitted that the constant remarks make her feel like she has “no control” over online discourse about her own appearance.
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“I see it, and I just can’t allow myself to have a reaction. I don’t know how to explain it - I’m still trying to figure it out myself,” she told the outlet when asked about the viral reaction to her SNL debut.
“People feel connected and free to be able to speak about me in whatever way they want, because they believe that I’ve signed my life away. That I’m not on a human level anymore, because I’m an actor. That these characters are for everybody else, but then me as Sydney is not for me anymore,” Sweeney said. “It’s this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over.”
