Jennifer Aniston Jokes About Salary At People’s Choice Awards

Jennifer Aniston’s joke about Hollywood wealth paid off Sunday at the People’s Choice Awards.

In accepting the People’s Icon Award, the “Friends” alum properly gushed her gratitude, but also brought out the funny side that has helped make her popular over the years.

“This town throws out a lot of awards, but the People’s Choice, this has always been special to me,” Aniston said, as seen in the clip below. “Because as actors, we don’t do this for critics or for each other, or to make our families proud, you know? We do this for the money.”

Aniston let the line settle and continued. “No, I’m just kidding, sorry. … We do it for you guys. C’mon seriously, we really do. None of us could do what we do if it was not for all of you, and you all have been so good to me.”

The check writers in Hollywood have also been good to the actor. She and co-star Reese Witherspoon are receiving a reported $2 million per episode on “The Morning Show,” the new drama about morning news anchors on Apple TV Plus.

But Aniston noted Sunday that she owed her icon cred to a comedy that premiered 25 years ago.

“If I have any claim to this word ‘icon,’ it’s only because I was able to be on an iconic show, with an iconic cast, and an iconic haircut,” she said. ”‘Friends’ was truly — it was the gift of a lifetime, and I would not be standing up here without that amazing show, without those amazing five other actors, and with an audience who stuck with us. … You believed in us, you really did, and you believed in those very impossibly large apartments.”