Mayim Bialik Speaks Out Against ‘Saturday Night Live’ Parody About Her Nose

Actress Mayim Bialik is not too happy about a “Saturday Night Live” parody that mocked her nose with a fake prosthetic.

“The Big Bang Theory” recalled feeling “ashamed” of the 1994 sketch and explained why she only recently decided to speak out about the incident decades later.

“Jeopardy!” fans might not remember that long before she stood behind the hosting podium, she was a child star on the sitcom “Blossom.” The sitcom was parodied during a 1994 sketch of “Saturday Night Live” that featured Melanie Hutsell playing Mayim’s titular character of Blossom. Mike Myers and Sara Gilbert also participated in the sketch, but Melanie was the only one wearing a prosthetic.

“The actress portraying me was dancing and mugging for the camera and she was hilarious," Mayim recently told Variety. "But. She wore a prosthetic nose. In order to truly convey that she was 'Blossom,' she wore a fake, big nose."

"I don't know if it was significantly larger than my real nose and I don't care to remember. I remember that it struck me as odd. And it confused me. No one else on the show was parodied for their features,” she continued. “In MAD magazine, everyone is caricatured, but in this rendition of parody, it was just me that was singled out. More specifically, it was my nose."

When asked why she didn’t speak out about the controversial sketch until now, Mayim replied, "I never thought to talk about it and mostly I tried to forget it. I hoped no one noticed. All of my friends in high school watched SNL. It wasn't subtle. They would all see it and I felt ashamed."

There have been a lot of discussions around the use of prosthetics surrounding Bradly Cooper’s prosthetic nose in his Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro.” During the 2023 Venice Film Festival, Oscar-winning make-up artist Kazu Hiro told Deadline that he regrets the backlash that the fake nose has caused.

"I wasn't expecting that to happen," Kazu Hiro said at the festival last month, per Deadline. "I feel sorry that I hurt some people's feelings."

"I wanted to portray Lenny as real as possible," he added. "He's photogenic and a great person. We wanted to respect and love that look. We did several different tests. That was our [only] intention."

Although there has been a lot of backlash online, Bernstein's children — Jamie, Alexander, and Nina Bernstein — defended the decision and said that they worked with Cooper closely on the film.

"We were touched to the core to witness the depth of his commitment, his loving embrace of our father's music, and the sheer open-hearted joy he brought to his exploration," read a statement posted to their Instagram page.

"It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts. It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose,” they added. “Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we're perfectly fine with that. We're also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well."

Although Bernstein’s children approved the use of the prosthetic and even mentioned “that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose” in their statement, the “Call Me Kat” star is still not sure how to feel about it.

"Cut to 40 years later and I started hearing people talk about 'Jewface' and, more recently, about Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein nose," Mayim said. "And I started scrutinizing the photos of Bradley and Leonard and wondering if it was necessary. I don't know how I feel. I don't know if it matters how I feel. I assume it matters how his family feels. But maybe it doesn't?"

"Girls all over the world used to tell me that they had never seen a Jewish girl like me on TV before they saw me on Blossom," she continued. "Many said they knew I was Jewish and it made them proud to be. That was so touching to me, and it still is… I wonder how those girls felt when they saw an actress playing me with a comically prosthetic nose. I wonder if that's different from Bradley Cooper playing a famous person. Does it matter?"

“I've had many conversations with myself about my nose in the past 40 years. I have not always loved it, but I also have never wanted to change it," she added. "My nose is undeniably Jewish, and I am as well. Is it because of my nose? Perhaps. But I don't have to know because we will always be one and the same."

Fortunately for fans of "Blossom," the 47-year-old actress recently opened up on plans for a "Blossom reboot.