Bowen Yang Apologizes To Ariana Grande For Kissing Her “Too Much” On ‘SNL’

After bringing the Saturday Night Live audience to their knees with a hilarious recent sketch, Bowen Yang and Ariana Grande are unpacking the details of their unexpected kiss scene.

The 4x Emmy-nominated SNL star apologized to the 2x Grammy winner after he “opened my mouth up too much” during their ‘Charades with Mom‘ sketch when Grande hosted the NBC show last month.

“Just to switch gears: I really have to apologize to you in person. I opened my mouth up too much when we kissed on SNL,” Yang told his Wicked co-star as she appeared on his and Matt Rogers‘ Las Culturistas podcast.

Grande quipped, “You absolutely did. I was shaking with laughter. No, no, no, not in a bad way! Not in a bad way — just in a disarming way.”

The sketch featured Yang as a gay man going toe-to-toe with his boyfriend’s (Michael Longfellow) mom, played by Grande, during a game of heated game of charades that turns to an all-out brawl before they kiss to break the “crazy tension.”

“I kissed you too much,” admitted Yang, to which Grande said, “You know what? That’s okay. … We were dropped in, and it felt like what these people needed at that time. It felt like what these characters required, and I’m all for it.”

The kiss wasn’t originally scripted, as Grande revealed she thought to add it after their first rehearsal. “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?’” she 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,’” added Grande. “And I was like, ‘Wow. I was thinking that.’”

Following a “very grown-up conversation,” they practiced the kiss during the dress rehearsal. “It was absolutely too open,” Grande joked. “No, I’m kidding! For the characters, I think it was perfectly open.”