Jennifer Aniston revealed that the reason she turned down a casting offer from “Saturday Night Live” before she found fame with “Friends” boiled down to one thing: “I always thought I was such hot s–t.”
Sitting with Dax Shepherd’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, the “Morning Show” star and Emmy winner shared that believe it or not, she turned down Lorne Michaels’ offer to cast her in the 1990s on “SNL.”
The actress shared that she yearned for the days of Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin and believed that the show was too much of a boys’ club at the time, according to People.
“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,]” she said. “I would love to be here if it was in the Gilda Radner day.”
Aniston remembered that she was young and confident but relatively inexperienced, with a few credits from the “Ferris Bueller” series and sketch series “The Edge.” At that time she had already started her friendship with Adam Sandler through their mutual friend, who also worked on the “Bueller” spinoff.
“Honestly, today I’d have to ask Lorne, because I remember, I was in New York City, and I had a meeting with Lorne Michaels, and I ran into [Adam] Sandler and [David] Spade in the room right outside,” she told Shepard of her meeting with Michaels.
“I mean, this is the brain that semi-remembers things that are back that far,” she added. “Something like that. I can’t remember, but I just remember ‘Friends’ then happened.”
The Emmy winner booked “Friends” in 1994 and appeared on the hit sitcom until 2004. Aniston has since hosted “SNL” twice — for the first time in 1999 and again in 2004.
Aniston’s “Armchair Expert” podcast episode is only available to listen for Wondery+ subscribers but will be available everywhere Oct. 20.
