Jennifer Aniston explains why she turned down ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast gig

Jennifer Aniston arrives to ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ at the Ed Sullivan Theater on September 10, 2025, in New York City. (James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images)

Jennifer Aniston is opening up about her decision to not become a Saturday Night Live cast member.

The actress spoke about the career decision during a recent appearance on Dax Shepard‘s podcast Armchair Expert. Aniston said she declined an offer Lorne Michaels gave her to join the cast of the late-night comedy sketch series in the early 1990s due to her ego.

“I always thought I was such hot s***,” Aniston said. “The story of that is all very confusing.”

Aniston said she took a meeting with Michaels during the time her friend Adam Sandler was on the show. The actress said she had reservations about how she would be treated if she joined the cast.

“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,'” Aniston said.

She said she believed at the time that SNL was “a very male-dominated” show.

“I would love to be here if it was in the Gilda Radner day,” Aniston said she told Michaels at the time. “I mean, this is the brain that semi-remembers things that are back that far. I can’t remember, but I remember Friends then happened. And that’s where I went.”

Aniston has hosted SNL twice — once in November 1999 and again in January 2004. She won an Emmy in 2002 for her role as Rachel Green in Friends.