Jennifer Aniston opens up on turning down Saturday Night Live

Jennifer Aniston has opened up about the “self-righteous attitude” that led her to turn down a coveted spot on the Saturday Night Live cast before her breakout role in Friends.

Did Jennifer Aniston turn down Saturday Night Live?

Speaking on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, the 56-year-old actress revealed she was offered a role on the NBC sketch show in the 1990s but expressed reservations to creator Lorne Michaels about the treatment of female cast members.

“I always thought I was such hot s---. The story of that is all very confusing,” Jennifer joked, recalling her meeting with Michaels where she ran into Adam Sandler and David Spade. Her friendship with Sandler, with whom she has since starred in films like Murder Mystery, predates Friends and began when he was close with Charlie Schlatter, her co-star in the short-lived Ferris Bueller’s Day Off TV series.

Jennifer explained her hesitancy to join the show, stating, “I don’t know why I had this self-righteous attitude of ‘I don’t know if women are treated the way they should be treated on this show.’ It’s a very male-dominated [show,] I would love to be here if it was in the Gilda Radner day.”

She added that her brain “semi-remembers” the details but ultimately, the offer was followed by her landing the role of Rachel Green on Friends, which ran from 1994 to 2004. Jennifer has previously recounted the confrontation, telling a news publication in 2021, “I was so young and dumb and I went into Lorne’s office and I was like, ‘I hear women are not respected on this show.’... I would prefer if it were like the days of Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin.”

Despite turning down the casting offer, the Emmy winner has gone on to host Saturday Night Live twice, in 1999 and 2004, admitting, “I love it so much.” Former SNL cast member Molly Shannon recently recalled Jennifer being “very laid back” and a “professional” during her first hosting gig.

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