Yahoo Lifestyle Bowen Yang apologizes to Ariana Grande for their “Saturday Night Live” kiss: 'I opened my mouth too much'
"It was absolutely too open," Grande jokingly agreed.
Bowen Yang is apologizing to his Wicked costar Ariana Grande for making out with her a little too ferociously on Saturday Night Live.
The comedian, 34, and “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” singer, 31, shared a messy kiss as part of a hilarious sketch called “Charades With Mom” when Grande hosted the show on Oct. 12. The segment saw Grande star as a mother who is unimpressed by her son’s new boyfriend (played by Yang), creating a fiery feud between the pair that sees them physically fight one another before kissing.
“Just to switch gears: I really have to apologize to you in person,” Yang said on Wednesday’s episode of the Las Culturistas podcast. When Grande asked why, he confessed, “I opened my mouth up too much when we kissed on SNL.”
Will Heath/NBC
Ariana Grande and Bowen Yang on 'Saturday Night Live'Grande instantly knew what he was talking about. “You absolutely did,” she agreed, taking an apologetic Yang by surprise. “I was shaking with laughter. No, no, no, not in a bad way! Not in a bad way — just in a disarming way.”
Still, Yang felt bad about his part in their liplock. “I kissed you too much,” he admitted, to which Grande responded, “You know what? That's okay.”
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Grande noted that the move really “felt like what these people needed” during their passionate argument and that she was all for it. The pair also revealed that the kiss wasn’t even in the scene’s script originally, but that they both independently came to the decision to include it after their first rehearsals.
“I didn't say anything because I was like, ‘Oh, everyone’s gonna think I’m absolutely insane and too comfortable.’ But I was like, ‘Oh, how funny would it be if we kissed at the end?’” Grande recalled. “And then Bowen texts me a few hours later and was like, ‘It's totally fine if this is way too crazy, but we were talking, and thought it would be so funny if we kissed at the end.’ And I was like, ‘Wow. I was thinking that.’”
She revealed that they ended up kissing in the sketch’s dress rehearsal after having a “very grown-up conversation” about it beforehand. Yang, however, noted that Grande appeared to be a bit hesitant about actually kissing him when he mentioned it before a run-through of the sketch.
Related: Ariana Grande reveals sweet reason why she chose to use her full name in Wicked credits
“We talked about maybe waiting till the real thing just to wing it and see how it was. Let it be on the live for the first time,” Grande explained. “But then we were like, ‘No. Let's be adults. Let's rehearse it, just so we know how it feels and not have that surprise on live television.’ So we just did it.”
She also reviewed Yang’s kissing technique with co-host Matt Rogers. “It was absolutely too open,” Grande teased. “No, I’m kidding! For the characters, I think it was perfectly open.”
When Rogers explained that he thought their kiss felt very purposeful, Grande added, “As long as that's how it felt for the audience, it’s all good here.”
Listen to Grande and Yang recall their kiss in the podcast above.
