Former SNL cast member Melanie Hutsell regrets wearing prosthetic nose for Blossom sketch

Mayim Bialik recently wrote an essay for Variety about antisemitism in Hollywood, including “criticism” she received as a kid about her nose and how her facial features have been used to identify her as a Jewish person throughout her career and how it has made her feel over the years. At one point she specifically calls out a Saturday Night Live sketch that parodied her sitcom Blossom at the height of its popularity, noting that “the actress” playing her was being very funny but that it struck her as “odd” that she was wearing a “fake, big nose” when none of the other Blossom cast members were having their physical appearances satirized.

In response, former SNL cast member Melanie Hutsell—who starred in that Blossom sketch in 1994—has shared a statement to Entertainment Weekly, revealing that she not only objected to wearing the prosthetic nose, but that she was told that if she refused to wear it she “would be fired.” Hutsell says she remembers it “so clearly” and that she “didn’t have the strength to refuse to do the sketch” at the time, but the experience “haunted” her for a decade after performing the sketch until she had an opportunity to meet Bialik at an audition.

Hutsell says she apologized to Bialik for the sketch, who responded with “I release you!,” which Hutsell took to mean that her apology had been accepted, saying in her statement that it “meant more to me than she will ever know.” (Bialik doesn’t name Hutsell in her Variety piece, and this may be why.) Hutsell also noted in her statement that she has taken a few opportunities in the past to share the regrets she has about that sketch in particular, with Entertainment Weekly noting that she recently discussed the situation and her “sincere regret” over it on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly On The Wall podcast.