Bowen Yang apologized to Ariana Grande for their kiss in a recent Saturday Night Live sketch.
The comedic actor offered his mea culpa on Wednesday’s episode of the Las Culturistas podcast that he co-hosts with Matt Rogers. Grande was a special guest.
“I really have to apologize to you,” Yang, 34, said at the 29:16 mark in the video linked above. “I opened my mouth up too much when we kissed on SNL.”
“You absolutely did. I was shaking of laughter,” 31-year-old Grande responded, leaving Rogers with his mouth agape. “No, no, no, no, no, not in a bad way. Just like a disarming way.”
In the “Charades With Mom” sketch last month, Diane (Grande) and her husband (Andrew Dismukes) meet their son’s boyfriend Josh (Yang) during a family game night. As the game heats up, Diane begins hurling insults at Josh, leading to a heated exchange that quickly escalates into a scuffle.
Just when things spiral out of control, Diane pauses and concedes, admiring that Josh is the first of her son’s boyfriends to stand up to her. Josh apologizes, and in a surprising twist, he and Diane share a kiss.
“I kissed you too much,” Bowen lamented on the podcast.
“You know what? That's OK. We were really dropped in,” Grande said. “It felt like what these people needed at that time. It felt like what these characters required. I'm all for it.”
The pop singer explained that there wasn’t a kiss in the sketch originally. Although the idea came to her mind after rehearsing the scene, she didn’t say anything because she feared everyone would think she’s “absolutely insane and too comfortable.”
Yang texted her hours later to say the team shared a similar thought about adding a kiss, to which Grande said she was immediately on board. The two opted to smooch during the dress rehearsal to avoid any surprises on live television.
“But for the characters, I think [our mouths were] perfectly open,” Grande added. “I did start shaking, giggling. I broke.”
Grande, who will appear opposite Yang in Wicked later this month, offered her own apologies.
“In the weeks leading up, I felt like I was bothering you—it's my turn to apologize,” she said. “I felt like I was blowing you up because I couldn't stop texting insane ideas for bits and silly, silly things. I was just so excited to get there.”
