The White Lotus’ Walton Goggins had a hilarious reunion with costar Sam Rockwell as he made his Saturday Night Live hosting debut.
The White Lotus duo appeared in a pre-taped sketch during SNL’s penultimate season 50 episode on Saturday, May 10, alongside cast member Jane Wickline. The musical number revolved around both Rockwell, 56, and Goggins, 53, revealing they were “fully grown-ass men” with “tiny baby feet.”
Their reunion on SNL was a sharp departure from Rockwell and Goggins’ escapades in The White Lotus, where their enigmatic characters — Rick and Frank — went on a wild, drug-fueled rampage through Bangkok in search of revenge.
Elsewhere in Goggins’s SNL hosting debut, the actor addressed the downsides of becoming “a sex symbol at 53 years old” thanks to his role in The White Lotus. He made light of the memes and social media commentary about how he was hot despite his “receding hairline” and looking “greasy.”
“I’ve had the same hairline since I was 7. It’s not receding, it’s holding its ground,” he insisted.
Goggins also brought his mom Janet Long onto the SNL stage for a quick twirl around home base in honor of Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 11.
Unfortunately, fans hoping for Aimee Lou Wood to reunite with Goggins on SNL were disappointed as she did not appear. White Lotus fans speculated that Goggins may be on the outs with costar and onscreen love interest Wood earlier this year when they stopped following each other on social media.
Goggins was repeatedly asked about a potential rift with Wood during an interview with The London Times writer Ed Potton earlier in May. The actor initially insisted he was “not gonna have that conversation,” before eventually ending the interview abruptly when the journalist brought up the alleged rift once again.
“There is no conversation to be had about that. [It’s like] sharing politics on social media — it’s in a vacuum,” Goggins insisted.
However, Goggins and Wood refollowed each other in early May — with the actress telling Entertainment Tonight at the Met Gala on Monday, May 5, that she “loved working with Walton.”
“[Working with Walton] was the best thing ever,” Wood, 31, added. “He’s going to be incredible doing SNL. It’s the perfect thing for him to do. It’s going to be hilarious. I’m so excited to see it.”
However, Wood ruled out the possibility of joining Goggins for an SNL cameo after her own recent complaints about the NBC sketch show.
The former Sex Education star took issue with Saturday Night Live’s parody of The White Lotus on April 12, in which SNL cast member Sarah Sherman depicted Wood’s character Chelsea with fake teeth to resemble her gap.
“I did find the SNL thing mean and unfunny,” Wood, 31, wrote via her Instagram Stories the following day. “Such a shame ‘cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago. Yes, take the piss for sure — that’s what the show is about — but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?”
Wood later shared that she’d received “apologies” from SNL over the sketch and got a flower bouquet from Sherman as a mea culpa as well. SNL star Bowen Yang subsequently told Extra that Wood’s reaction to the parody was “completely valid.”
“You need those reminders every now and then that parody can go too far sometimes, and that we as comedians can take account for that instead of banging our foot and saying that, like, we should be allowed to say whatever we want because that’s just the culture,” Yang, 34, said.
Saturday Night Live’s season 50 finale airs Saturday, May 17 on NBC at 11:30p.m. ET with guest host Scarlett Johansson and musical guest Bad Bunny.
