Ayo Edebiri said during a new Vanity Fair cover story that Jennifer Lopez “was very chill and nice about it” when a potential online controversy threatened to derail their February episode of “Saturday Night Live.” Edebiri, coming off multiple award wins for “The Bear,” was the night’s host and Lopez was the musical guest amid the rollout for her album “This Is Me… Now.”
In the week leading up to the episode, a 2020 episode of the “Scam Goddess” podcast resurfaced on social media and went viral as it featured Edebiri speaking critically of Lopez. Responding to host Laci Mosley’s claim that Lopez’s “whole career is one long scam,” Edebiri responded: “Well, that’s the thing — she thinks she’s on multiple tracks, but it’s not her. I think she thinks that she’s still good, even though she’s not singing for most of these songs. … A lot of the write-ups of the songs will be like, ‘J.Lo didn’t have time to make it to the studio.’ Like, ‘J.Lo was busy.’ Doing what? Not singing, obviously.”
The resurfaced podcast led to media rumors that Edebiri and Lopez were beefing behind the scenes of “Saturday Night Live,” but “The Bear” actor told Vanity Fair that those claims were absurd because “that would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing, and I’m obviously Mr. Bean. She’s J.Lo! She was very chill and nice about it.”
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Lopez previously toldPvNewthat Edebiri broke down in tears while apologizing to her in the “Saturday Night Live” dressing room.
“She was mortified and very sweet,” Lopez said about Edebiri. ”She came to my dressing room and apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. She felt really badly and loved my performance because we had just done my soundcheck and she actually got to hear me perform. She was just like, ‘I’m so fucking sorry, it was so awful of me.’”
“It’s funny,” Lopez added. “I’ve heard similar things said about me throughout my career, so it really didn’t affect me.”
Edebiri ended up nodding to the controversy during the “SNL” episode. Sheappeared in a game show sketchwhere Kenan Thompson forced contestants to reckon with their rude social media comments. Edebiri’s character panics at one point and says: “OK. We get it. It’s wrong to leave mean comments, or post comments just for clout, or run your mouth on a podcast, and you don’t consider the impact because you’re 24 and stupid. But I think I speak for everyone when I say from now on, we’re going to be a lot more thoughtful about what we post online.”
In her Vanity Fair cover story, Edibiri said the potential controversy did not deter the accomplishment of hosting “SNL.” She added: “’SNL’is something that in my bones, I dreamed of as a comedian, as a young kid. That to me is a pinnacle of success.”
Edibiri will be back on “The Bear” when the Emmy-winning FX series returns for its third season on June 27. The series has already been renewed for a fourth season.
