'Friends' Actress Declined Returning Because of 'Bad Anxiety'

'Friends' Actress Declined Returning Because of 'Bad Anxiety',Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey only appeared in a single episode of Friends, playing Rachel's former friend who married her ex-fiance. She never guest starred on the show, explaining that her 'bad anxiety' was to blame. She struggled with the last-minute changes writers would make, which caused [...]

‘Friends’ Actress Declined Returning Because of ‘Bad Anxiety’

Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey only appeared in a single episode of Friends, playing Rachel’s former friend who married her ex-fiance. She never guest starred on the show, explaining that her “bad anxiety” was to blame. She struggled with the last-minute changes writers would make, which caused her concern before performing in front of a studio audience.

In “The One With the Evil Orthodontist,” Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) learns that her ex-fiance Dr. Barry Farber (Mitchell Whitfield) went with her friend Mindy (Grey) on the Aruba honeymoon they planned together. After the trip, Mindy and Barry fell in love, and Mindy invited Rachel to be her maid of honor. Barry tries to rekindle his relationship with Rachel, but it backfires spectacularly as the two women team up to exact revenge.

“I was a fan of the show, and I got the call to do it,” Grey told MediaVillage last week. “Then when I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script. It’s very hard to be a guest star because you’re not a part of it, and you’re really trying to figure it all out. They were trying to figure out what the character was, what the scene was, and it was changing, and changing, and changing. It all made me so anxious that I could barely do it.”

Grey didn’t understand what was happening to her at the time, but she has since learned more about her anxiety. “I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I just didn’t understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department,” she explained, adding that she’s thankful for the experience because it helped her understand the issue.

“Everything you do in life, especially the hard things, the really painful, difficult things, are usually the things that are the most instructive and helpful,” she told MediaVillage. “In life, I always learn more from things that you feel like a failure at, and the successes, you don’t learn as much, although, they might be fun. But it’s all a part of life.”

Friends producers asked her to come back, but she declined. Jana Marie Hupp took over the role when Mindy appeared in the Season 2 episode “The One with Barry and Mindy’s Wedding.” Grey said she also turned down a chance to host Saturday Night Live because of her performance anxiety.

In 2010, Grey took part in Dancing With the Stars, which she felt was a huge victory. “When I look back at Dancing with the Stars, I’m like, ‘Look what I did,'” she said. “But at the time I didn’t watch it because I was so busy learning the next dance that I never actually could see it. Eventually, when I did look at it, it was thrilling to be able to say, ‘I can’t believe I did that.'”

Grey recently starred in the Lifetime TV movie Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation, in which she played the controversial Remnant Fellowship Church founder. She is now involved in an untitled Dirty Dancing sequel, which Lionsgate plans to release in February 2024. Jonathan Levine (Nine Perfect Strangers) is signed to direct.

0comments

Jennifer Aniston Says Her First Big Splurge From Her ‘Friends’ Paycheck Was a $13,000 Mistake
Jennifer Aniston Reacts to ‘Friends’ Criticism
Brooke Shields Reveals How ‘Friends’ Cameo Enraged Ex Andre Agassi