The entertainment business thrives off parodies – whether it be through late-night comedy shows or viral social media posts. Some stars embrace them while others have a love-hate relationship with them. The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston falls into that the latter. She seems impressed with the imitations while wanting to hide the unflattering parts. One impression that sticks out is Vanessa Bayer’s Saturday Night Live impression. Now, years after the SNL alum’s departure, Aniston has revealed how she felt seeing Bayer’s impression for the first time.
The adage in Hollywood is that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but that’s not always the case. While Jennifer Aniston seemed cool with the SNL impression, there was a little more going on beneath the surface, at the start. The Morning Show star was very honest with InStyle when talking about her initial reaction to Vanessa Bayer’s impression on the late-night sketch series:
I remember someone saying, ‘Did you see the impression of you on SNL?’ My first response was, ‘What? No, I'm not impression [-worthy].’ They played it for me and [gasps], ‘That is so not the way I sound.’ Then I was like, ‘Uh, oh. Oh, I see.’ Everyone said it was a compliment, but I had to really get my brain around that and tuck my little tail between my legs, thinking I'm being made fun of. That's always the gut instinct: ‘They're making fun of me.’
The Murder Mystery star’s reaction is perfectly natural for anyone. For decades, Jennifer Aniston has been imitated multiple times – some flattering, others not so much. So it was just human nature for her to retreat into her head and overanalyze Vanessa Bayer’s Saturday Night Live parody. It was more about Friends' Rachel Green rather than Aniston, though. But at least, Aniston recognized Bayer’s brilliance like so many of us did. While speaking with InStyle, Aniston even made it clear that Bayer's impression was the best she's seen. And it really says something when Rachel Green herself names you as her favorite impression.
This wasn’t the first time the Friends alum has addressed others doing impressions of her. Jennifer Aniston finally answered the Internet’s question, regarding whether she had seen her TikTok doppelgänger. She revealed the TikToker was the closest to being her lookalike compared to others. I mean the social media sensation even embraced Rachel Green’s mock turtleneck obsession. But ultimately, given Aniston’s laidback personality, it’s easy to see why she'd be in on the joke.
At present, Jennifer Aniston fans can look forward to a number of projects from the actress. At the moment, she's gearing up for the release of The Morning Show Season 2, which premieres on Apple TV+ on September 7.
