Jennifer Aniston almost lost her role on ‘Friends’ because of another sitcom
The 52-year-old actress rose to fame playing Rachel Green in the hit sitcom – which ran for 10 years between 1994 and 2004 – but has now revealed she very nearly had to give up on the breakout role because of prior commitments
1 June 2021
Jennifer was already appearing in ‘Muddling Through’ when she auditioned for Rachel, and was told by ‘Friends’ director James Burrows that the rival sitcom would likely be picked up for another season “just to spite” the launch of ‘Friends’.
She said: "Sure enough, they [the show] actually did. They picked it up just for three episodes. And so that's when other girls … and then ‘Friends’ sort of had a moment of, ‘Ooh, we should start just having a backup for Rachel.'"
Not only did word get out that the hit show may be in need of a possible replacement for Jennifer, but the actress claims even her own friends wanted to snatch the part from her.
She added: "I remember my friends calling me saying, ‘I'm auditioning for Rachel. Will you help me with the ...' And I was like, what? What?"
Jennifer then made a life-changing decision to ask a producer if she could step out of her role of playing Madeline Cooper on the short-lived series to star as Rachel Green instead.
The producer shared a few choice words with her that turned out to be tremendously wrong, and Jennifer is thankful she never listened to his advice.
She told Gayle King during an appearance on SiriusXM’s ‘Gayle King in the House’: "That's when he said, ‘I've seen that show ‘Friends’, I saw that show. I saw the pilot. That's not going to make you a star. This show will make you a star.' And then the rest is history.”
Jennifer recently reunited with her ‘Friends’ co-stars for a reunion special for HBO Max.
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