"People becoming famous for basically doing nothing": When Jennifer Aniston slammed influencer jobs

Jennifer Aniston has been on the acting scene for decades now. She catapulted to fame when she played Rachel Green in the 90s sitcom Friends. The actress certainly has enjoyed astronomical success and stardom.

As a seasoned actress, Jennifer Aniston has a lot of respect for her profession and values it highly. So much so that she is extremely vocal and opinionated about influencers blowing up overnight on the internet because of their popularity on social media.

In an interview with Variety in 2022 as a part of the "Actors on Actors" series Jennifer Aniston slammed influencers.

She said:

“This thing of people becoming famous for basically doing nothing. I mean — Paris Hilton, Monica Lewinsky, all those.”

The Murder Mystery actress talked about how the internet "shaped a new culture" of people becoming famous, and that it did not equate to talent or merit. For Aniston that is not what acting is supposed to mean or represent.

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Jennifer Aniston on social media

Despite what the actress had to say about the negative impact of social media on the acting industry, Aniston enjoys her own social media presence.

While on Ellen DeGeneres' show in 2019, Jennifer Aniston described Instagram as a "fun thing" and appreciated the fact that it was so "well received." The best part for her was being able to connect with fans and "make fun of yourself."

The actress, who has over 42 million followers on Instagram, admitted in a Harper's Bazaar interview that she is aware of all the possibilities that the world of social media promises.

She said:

"And it's not that scary. [You can] share information, connect with your fans, right wrongs that are said about you, have fun, make fun of yourself, make fun of people, help animals get rescued."

Aniston enjoys sharing pictures of her dogs, promoting her movies, and sharing her work out journey with her followers on Instagram.

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Jennifer Aniston on how social media is diluting actors' jobs

In the 2022 interview with Variety, Jennifer Aniston said that she was aware of the changing landscape of fame and the role that social media, including Instagram, played in it. She claimed that she is lucky that she got to experience the industry before it became "what it is today", which is completely "different." She mentioned the meteoric rise of "streaming services" being responsible for "more people" in the industry.

Acting is something that doesn't just happen to everybody, but this is now the case, thanks to the internet and social media, that allows anybody to become an actor.

Talking about how social media stardom is affecting actors' jobs, Aniston made the following remark:

“You’re famous from TikTok. You’re famous from YouTube. You’re famous from Instagram. It’s sort of almost like it’s diluting our actor’s job.”

However, the Marley and Me star wasn't entirely critical of influencers. In the same interview, she talked about her own career and how she was lucky to have her Friends co-stars, who shared in the journey to fame. Talking about their "sudden notoriety", Jennifer Aniston expressed her relief that they all "had each other" when things were "sane" before the "social media" explosion.

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Netizens respond to Jennifer Aniston's opinion on influencers

Jennifer Aniston's take on influencers did not sit well with a lot of netizens. Some netizens took to Twitter to point out how Aniston herself is a nepo baby and thus had an advantage in the industry. While some agreed that the nature of fame has changed over the years, whether it was for better or worse had people divided.

One Twitter user stated that, with social media, people had more access and opportunity than before:

Another Twitter user also believed that social media provided a platform for everybody to showcase their talents, which was a good thing:

Here is a netizen who supported what Jennifer Aniston had to say in the interview:

The netizen's tweet soon faced backlash as other netizens were quick to disagree:

Jennifer Aniston, however, did not have anything else to add to the matter. It seems that her intentions were pure, and that it was up to netizens to decide whether to slam her for her opinions or to support her.

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