Former ‘SNL’ Star Melanie Hutsell Claims She Was Forced To Wear Prosthetic Nose To Play Mayim Bialik In “Wrong” Sketch: “I Was Told If I Refused, I Would Be Fired”

Former Saturday Night Live star Melanie Hutsell has responded to Mayim Bialik’s recent comments about the 1994 sketch in which Hutsell sported a prosthetic nose to mock her Blossom character.

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Hutsell claimed that she was forced to wear the nose or risk being fired.

“When we were preparing to do that sketch all those years ago, I was absolutely horrified that they wanted me to wear a prosthetic nose to play Mayim Bialik’s character, Blossom. I knew it was wrong,” she claimed.

“I remember so clearly that when I expressed that I did not want to wear the prosthetic nose for the sketch, I was told if I refused, I would be fired,” Hutsell continued. “And keep in mind, many of the people who had a hand in creating the sketch were Jewish. Although I had and have always had a strong moral compass, I didn’t have the strength to refuse to do the sketch after I was told I would be fired.”

Hutsell went on to say she would have done things differently if given the chance.

“If I could go back and change history, I would have refused to wear the prosthetic nose and taken the risk of losing my job,” her statement concluded. “That would have been the right thing to do.”

Bialik first shared her feelings about the skit in a Variety essay published Oct. 18, in which she wrote that she was initially “excited” to have Blossom parodied on SNL, but later felt “confused” by Hutsell’s “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,” Bialik wrote. “No one else on the show was parodied for their features.”

She went on to say that she felt “singled” out by the show: “I never thought to talk about it and mostly I tried to forget it. I hoped no one noticed,” she shared. “All of my friends at high school watched SNL. It wasn’t subtle. They would all see it and I felt ashamed.”

She concluded her essay by writing that she “never wanted to change” her nose and has grown to accept herself.

“My genetic makeup is mine alone, and also, it is the combination of cultures shoved together after the Holocaust spilled so many of us out on the shores of Ellis Island,” she wrote. “My nose is undeniably Jewish, and I am as well.”