Jennifer Aniston taped Oprah this week to promote her new movie. In the interview she says that she was offered a spot on SNL, but turned it down for Friends. Really? Jennifer Aniston on SNL? This was in the early 1990's, so she would have been on at the same time that SNL was about to hit one of its golden periods with Spade and Sandler and Farley and Rock. Wow those were some great cast members. Phil Hartman was still on and Dana Carvey and Mike Myers were just finishing their run so if she really was offered the spot she probably would have got lost in the shuffle and definitely made the right decision to turn it down for Friends. The thing is think about how many pilots don't make it, so she was taking a huge risk but it paid off for her. Do you think she would have been any good on SNL? She did not really have an improv background did she?
Maybe it was a spot in the audience to watch the show?? LOL
ReplyDeleteWouldn't have worked, she's only got one character in her.
IMHO, there's no way she could have lasted on SNL - especially if she were in an ensemble cast with Hartman, Carvey, Farley, Spade, Meyers and Sandler and the rest.
ReplyDeleteTo go up against them, she'd have been lucky to have lasted a year much less parlayed that into a career as she did with Rachel on Friends.
On Friends, she got to play to her strength - a pretty, one note character, which she has managed to extend into what every actor dreams of, steady work.
Everyone needs filler. But what do I know? Maybe SNL would have made her a better actress? I don't think Friends did.
ReplyDeleteHer body is banging but lol - Lainey is right...it's like she always tweaks her nipples before going in front of the camera.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she's wearing the nip covers like Samantha from Sex in the City.
ReplyDeleteI am embarrassed I know that.
=/
I have those nipples. It doesn't matter how padded my bra is, they always poke through. Some of them are just made that way. :)
ReplyDeleteI have friends who knew her back then, and she was tight with a lot of comedians at the time. This was pre-Friends and I remember she was well-liked and generally thought of as a funny person. I think this SNL thing is very plausible. I can't remember the name of the show and am too lazy to look it up right now, but she was starring in a sketch comedy show right before she did Friends. A friend of mine was on it and said she was great.
ReplyDeleteOtherCheryl
She's a revisionist.
ReplyDeleteI'd read previously that she auditioned for the show but didn't make the cut. She was on some other ensemble comedy show in the early 90's with Julie Brown called, The Edge. There are clips on YouTube if anyone is interested.
I love JA, but my affection is limited to her work on Friends. All of her other stuff is pretty lame.
@RocketQueen I know! all the time and is annoying, even on friends in (more than) some of her outfits there you have...nipples! To me, that doesn't make you sexy.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she's funny, she's always Rachel Green, just slighty older and finding love in every movie.
Maybe, like Jean Harlow, she rubs ice on them before every take!
ReplyDeleteLOL Patty!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have to look on the bright side: missing out on SNL freed her up to do Leprechaun!
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those people that believes in fate and in some ways, it seems she was always fated to be successful in comedy. She is funny and has good timing but like others said, she is funny as one character and I think it's just an extension of herself. The SNL audition process requires 3 original characters and 3 celebrity impersonations (give or take). I'm not sure she would have had the SNL chops. I've seen some of the original audition tapes for the more famous cast members and after seeing Dana Carvey's, I can't believe he hasn't sustained his career. He is so talented!
ReplyDeleteah, I love her.
ReplyDeleteAh, Phil Hartman...I miss you, man. I think I'll watch my Newsradio DVDs tonight, because I'm suddenly feeling sad at just the mention of his name.
ReplyDeleteI liked Leprechaun totally forgot she was in it.
ReplyDeleteI think she might of been offered it but SNL pays shit compared to primetime. Even if Friends only lasted a season or two it would of been more then she would get on SNL.
Weren't nipples, like, accessories back in the late 90s/early 00s? I remember Trinny and Susannah saying something like that.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I can see her being SNL, but I can't see her getting any career out of that. It has typically been a lot harder for any woman to find stardom post-SNL. Compared to the dozens of male alumni who built massive careers out of their stardom, there have only been a handful of female players who have had that kind of success.
The only females I remember from that time were Janene Garofalo & Sarah Silverman. I don't see anyone being a major player when you had all those amazing dudes that were on at the time. She definitely made the right decision to do FRIENDS. At least financially.
ReplyDelete@ Valerie - I *LOVE* Phil Hartman. Loved him on SNL and on News Radio, (which SUCKED after his passing).
ReplyDeleteSNL is pretty horrible to women and that is well documented. For one Gilda Radner, you have seasons of Jan Hooks and Cheri Oteri. Where are they now? Can you name the last thing Ana Gyser was in? I believe SNL would have hired Aniston, but she would never have stood out. She made a better decision doing Friends.
ReplyDeleteI thought Jen was good in The Good Girl.
ReplyDeletewhat Henriette said-
ReplyDeletesexist assholes creating and further perpetuating a comedic glass ceiling for women...arggg
wasn't Jen a member of the Groundlings with Lisa Kudrow?
ReplyDeleteYet when she hosted she wasn't all that funny really. And Henrietta is right about women and SNL. After the original three women there is a long list of forgettable names and faces of women who were hired for no other reason than they needed someone to be a girl in a sketch. I think things got better when Tina Fey and Amy Poeler were on because they had a hand in the writing.
ReplyDeleteI still don't get the hate for Jennifer Aniston. Can't for the life of me figure out why people get so weird about her when she hasn't really done much to warrant the snark.
ReplyDeleteThat said, she actually was on an ensemble comedy sketch show in the early 90's called 'The Edge', and she was damned funny on it. In fact, I remembered her when she started on 'Friends' because of that show. The show's main headliner was Julie Brown, but Wayne Knight was also on it, just to name a couple people. Seriously, she was funny!
@Mooshki
ReplyDeleteWe have matching nipples! I always wear padded bras but they find a way to wear out that part of the bra pretty quickly. No matter the weather, they're always up and ready for action. :-)
Between the news yesterday that Penny Cruz is a closet lesbian and Mooshki and Paisley discussing their nipples, I'm going a little gay inside. Women are just more fun. Guys are way too sensitive about their junk. Put it out there boys... okay, well maybe not ;-)
ReplyDeleteIs there a name for it? "always-ready-for-it" nipple syndrome?
ReplyDeleteWhen she hosted SNL, it was HYSTERICAL! Her take on Carrie taking home Mr. Peepers for a 1 night stand was over the top.
ReplyDeleteI must be the only one that truly likes what she does. She does some excellent movies, but I'm always looking for her to play 'that character'.
I think she would have done pretty well for herself because she would have done anyone and everything to be successful.
ReplyDeleteThe male writers on Friends used to brag about how Aniston would let them bang her if they'd give her a few extra lines per show or the best jokes. Go over to the Smoking Gun and check it out. It's all in a lawsuit filed by a former female writer.
I read that lawsuit, and nowhere does it say that she was willing to have sex for lines - where can you see that?? All I see is a bunch of male writers talking about how they would like to do her, which is not the same thing at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those who say doing Friends was a better choice. There are not a lot of women who were on SNL (Jane Curtain being the exception) who actually parlayed the experience into a better career like it's been for the men. Just saying..
ReplyDelete