Yahoo Lifestyle Molly Shannon Recalls Jennifer Aniston's “SNL” Hosting Gig: 'She Had a Big Wedding Ring on' (Exclusive)
The 'Friends' alum made her 'SNL' debut in 1999 — at the time she was engaged to Brad Pitt and wore a spiral diamond and platinum ring
After six seasons on Saturday Night Live, Molly Shannon says Jennifer Aniston's hosting stint made a lasting impression.
In celebration of the iconic sketch show's 50th anniversary, the former cast member, 60, looked back at working with some of her favorite celebrity hosts in a joint interview with Seth Meyers, Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang and Leslie Jones.
Shannon recalled the Friends alum, 55, being "very laid back" while hosting the NBC late night show.
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Jennifer Aniston on 'Saturday Night Live'"I remember being like, 'Ooh, that's so cool. Jennifer Aniston,'" she recalled. "And she had a big wedding ring on and she was just [an] easygoing professional, [she] had been in television for a long time."
Over the course of her career, Aniston has hosted Saturday Night Live twice — for the first time in 1999 and again in 2004.
At the time of her SNL debut, she was engaged to Brad Pitt and wore a spiral diamond and platinum ring by Italian jewelry designer Silvia Damiani, which PEOPLE reported Pitt spent seven months helping design.
In addition to Aniston, who was "just easygoing and really fun," Shannon also recalled working with Cameron Diaz.
"During the rehearsal, she would just eat salads, lots of greens. And I was like, 'I want to be like Cameron Diaz and just eat salad,'" she laughed. "You know what I mean? Isn't that funny?"
Aniston previously revealed that she was once invited to audition for SNL, but turned down the opportunity after hearing that the show was a "boys club."
“I didn’t think I would like that environment,” she admitted during a 2019 appearance on The Howard Stern Show. “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.”
During a meeting with showrunner Lorne Michaels, the actress revealed that she even confronted him 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 laughed.
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Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
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