Jennifer Aniston could have had a career in comedy — if she wanted one.
Just before she landed her career-making role on NBC’s “Friends,” Aniston had a meeting with Lorne Michaels about possibly working on “Saturday Night Live,” she told Howard Stern on the Tuesday edition of his SiriusXM program.
A person with knowledge of the process confirmed to TheWrap that Aniston auditioned for the show.
“I didn’t think I would like that environment,” Aniston told Stern. “I remember showing 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!’”
Aniston doesn’t remember who recommended her to “SNL,” but she had known Sandler and Spade since she was “20, 21, after I’d done a television show with a guy who knew them,” she said.
“I just went to talk with him,” she continued. “And I was such a young twit. I was like, ‘I think that women need to be treated better here.’ Because it was such a boys’ club,” she said. “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.”
In response, Stern asked Aniston “Did he look at you like, ‘hey, who are you?’” to which she nodded and said “Yeah.” And yes, Aniston never joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live.” However, not long after that conversation with the “SNL” creator, “Friends” came along — a show she called “lightning in a bottle.”
“We all miss it every day,” she added. “I would be nothing without it.”
An “SNL” spokeswoman did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on this story.