Ayo Edebiri Shuts Down Jennifer Lopez ‘SNL’ Tension Rumors: ‘Like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger Beefing’

Stars: they’re just like us. In that we all have old social posts that we would probably like the world to forget, especially when they resurface at the worst possible time. That was the dilemma faced by award-winning The Bear star Ayo Edebiri, who found herself in hot water earlier this year when, on the eve of her first hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, some unflattering comments she’d made four years earlier about the night’s musical guest, Jennifer Lopez, were revived to her mortification.

The Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Bottoms actress addresses the rumors of tension on the set during the February episode in a new Vanity Fair cover story in which she throws cold water on the suggestion that her years-old Lopez diss caused issues on the episode. “That would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing,” Edebiri told the magazine about the power imbalance between her and the global pop superstar/actress. “And I’m obviously Mr. Bean. She’s J.Lo!”

For a refresher, the former stand-up comedian said, “I was actually thinking about one of my favorite scams of all time because J.Lo is performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Her whole career is one long scam,” during an episode of the 2020 Scam Goddess podcast. To prove there was no ill-ill, she made fun of the dug-up comment that night on SNL in a sketch.

“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,” Edebiri joked in the bit titled “Why’d You Say It.”

“She was very chill and nice about it,” Edebiri told VF.

In a Variety story a few days after SNL, Lopez laughed the whole thing off, saying, “I’ve heard similar things said about me throughout my career, so it really didn’t affect me.”

Lopez told a reporter that the actor had apologized before the episode, adding that Edebiri was, “mortified and very sweet. 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 f–king sorry; it was so awful of me.’”

Though it likely made for an awkward week, Edebiri told VF that it didn’t ruin her long-held dream of taking her place on the SNL stage. “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,” she said.