As previously established, Vanessa Bayer is great. She’s great on SNL, she’s great on I Think You Should Leave (my only complaint about season two is that she wasn’t in it), she’s great in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, and I’m sure her semi-autobiographical Showtime series, I Love This for You, will be great, too. Also great: Bayer’s impressions.
Her Rachel from Friends is an all-timer, but Jennifer Aniston initially wasn’t a fan.
When asked by InStyle about her favorite impression of her Friends character, the actress replied, “Vanessa Bayer on Saturday Night Live. 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.”
Bayer wasn’t making fun of Aniston: she called herself a “superfan” of Friends and said that “getting to do Rachel with her was a dream come true. Now I think it’s time for Aniston to return the favor and get Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow to recreate the Instagram sketch from I Think You Should Leave. “Slurping down fish p*ss with these wet chodes Monica and Phoebe. Total tuna cans.” It practically writes itself.
