Jennifer Aniston Reveals She Turned Down a Saturday Night Live Audition: 'It Was a Boys Club'
Live from New York … it was almost Jennifer Aniston!
Before filming the pilot for Friends, Aniston says she was offered a chance to audition for Saturday Night Live — though she wasn’t sold on the idea.
“I didn’t think I would like that environment,” she said Monday on The Howard Stern Show at the launch of the new SiriusXM Hollywood studios. “I remember turning up and [Adam] Sandler was there and [David] Spade was there, and I’d known them already and they were like, ‘Look, Aniston’s here!’ I met them when I was 20, 21, after I’d done a television show with a guy who knew them.”
Aniston, 50, said she went to a meeting with showrunner Lorne Michaels, whom she confronted about the lack of female representation on the show.
“I was like, ‘I think that women need to be treated better here.’ Because it was such a boys club,” she said. “You’re just, not the brightest when you’re in your early 20s. I didn’t lecture him, I was just saying what I would hope if I was to do this, what I would hope it to be.”
“I was such a young twit,” she joked.
Aniston ultimately decided to pass on the opportunity. Of course, she went on to land the career-launching role of Rachel Green on Friends, and she eventually appeared on SNL has a host and in cameos over the years.
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Friends — starring Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry as a group of young pals in New York City — ran for 10 seasons from 1994-2004. In the years since the show went off the air, it remains a hit thanks to new generations of fans streaming it.
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“We all miss it every day,” Aniston told Howard Stern of filming Friends. “I would be nothing without out.”
The cast has remained close over the years and regularly reunites for the occasional dinner or night in together.
“We just had dinner this week. The whole gang,” Aniston shared. “Everyone was there. Schwimmer was in town and we all happened to have a window of time, so we all got together. We laughed so hard.”
