Jennifer Aniston Reveals Why She Turned Down Saturday Night Live

Jennifer Aniston recently discussed her choice to decline an opportunity to host Saturday Night Live prior to her rise to fame on Friends.

“I always believed I was something special. The backstory is quite puzzling,” Aniston, 56, shared in an upcoming episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast, “Armchair Expert.”

Aniston confessed that her memories are a bit hazy, saying, “To be honest, I’d have to check with Lorne because I distinctly recall being in New York City, engaged in a meeting with Lorne Michaels. I bumped into [Adam] Sandler and [David] Spade right outside the room. I’ve known Sandler for ages.”

When questioned by Shepard, 50, about her friendship with Sandler, 59, before she became a household name thanks to her iconic role in Friends.

“Absolutely, he was great friends with Charlie Schlatter, who played Ferris Bueller in the TV adaptation of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” she recalled from her time on the short-lived series, humorously adding, “So, we ran into each other at Jerry’s Deli, like, back in the 1912s.”

Aniston’s prior impressions of SNL eventually swayed her decision.

“I don’t know why I harbored this self-righteous perception that, ‘I’m not sure if women get the respect they deserve on this show.’ It felt like such a male-dominated atmosphere; I would have loved to contribute during the times of Gilda Radner,” she expressed. “This mishmash of my brain barely remembers events from that era. Yet I can’t recall, but I distinctly remember how Friends then came into the picture.”

Ultimately, Aniston hosted SNL in 1999 and again in 2004. She has previously revisited her conversation with Michaels, 80, about how she initially rejected the invite to appear on the show.

“I was very young and quite foolish when I walked into Lorne’s office saying, ‘I’ve heard women aren’t respected on this show,’” she relayed to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “I can’t recall the full conversation, but it was something like, ‘I’d prefer it to resemble the days of Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin’”.

Aniston added, “It was such a boys’ club back then; who was I to be enjoying that type of conversation with Lorne Michaels? So there you have it; I’ve hosted Saturday Night Live a couple of times, and I genuinely adore it.”

Reflecting on her past, Aniston remarked that she thinks of herself as “such a naïve young person” regarding her discussion with Michaels, revealing on The Howard Stern Show in 2019, “I said, ‘Women should be treated better here.’ It truly felt like a boys’ club. At that age, you’re not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. I wasn’t lecturing him, just expressing my hopes for the experience if I were to participate.”

Saturday Night Live airs on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET on Saturdays.