Highlights
- Filming the Friends reunion was emotionally draining for Jennifer Aniston, leading to her walking off the set on multiple occasions.
- Aniston found revisiting her past and the memories associated with Friends to be extremely difficult and "melancholic."
- The entire Friends cast struggled during the reunion, with even tough-guy Matt LeBlanc getting emotional, and Matthew Perry facing physical pain due to dental surgery.
Jennifer Aniston got her big break as one of the main stars of the NBC sitcom Friends. Her popularity on this show helped the actress kickstart her career and amass an impressive net worth of $300 million. Although she’s taken many roles in popular films and TV shows since Friends came to an end, Aniston is still better known for portraying Rachel Green in this beloved sitcom.
Along with her co-stars, Aniston recently reprised her role as Rachel in the Friends reunion, which might have never happened without David Schwimmer’s help. Despite scoring four Emmy nominations and being highly praised by the fans, Aniston revealed that filming Friends: The Reunion was emotionally draining. Things got so hard that the actress had to walk off the set on more than one occasion.
Filming The Friends Reunion Was So Emotional For Jennifer Aniston That She Had To Walk Off The Set Several Times
Fans loved HBO Max's Friends: The Reunion. However, Jennifer Aniston revealed that filming this reunion was one of the hardest things she’s ever done. In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, the actress admitted that she originally thought that making a reunion would be fun, but she was wrong. It ended up being so emotionally challenging she had to walk off the set on several occasions.
"I think we were just so naive walking into it, thinking, 'How fun is this going to be? They're putting the sets back together, exactly as they were,'" Aniston said of the making of Friends: The Reunion. "Then you get there and it's like, 'Oh right, I hadn't thought about what was going on the last time I was actually here.'"
Aniston explained that revisiting her past was extremely difficult. "... It was like, 'Hi, past, remember me? Remember how that sucked? You thought everything was in front of you and life was going to be just gorgeous and then you went through maybe the hardest time in your life?'"
The actress further explained that there were times when it became too much and she needed to take a breather, "It was all very jarring and, of course, you've got cameras everywhere and I’m already a little emotionally accessible, I guess you could say, so I had to walk out at certain points. I don't know how they cut around it."
Despite how emotionally draining it was, Aniston managed to finish filming the reunion, which ultimately was a huge hit.
Despite Walking Off The Set, Jennifer Aniston Claims That Filming The Friends Reunion Was A Blessing
Jennifer Aniston admitted that filming Friends: The Reunion was extremely hard. Being back on the set of Friends brought back a lot of painful memories for the actress. It was also a reminder of how much things have changed for her. In an interview for Rob Lowe's podcast, Literally! With Rob Lowe, Aniston explained that the whole experience was “melancholic.”
"Going back there, it's nostalgic in a way that's kind of also a little melancholy, you know," she explained. "Because a lot has changed and we have all gone down different roads, not so easy and some easy ... for each of us." Despite this, the former Friends star called the experience a "blessing" nonetheless.
"But again, everything's a blessing if you're able to look at life's ups and downs in that way," Aniston told The Hollywood Reporter. The actress also explained that, despite all the hard times she's gone through, playing Rachel Green on Friends changed the course of her life and career for the best. "And if it all hadn't happened, I would not be sitting here the woman that I am," she added.
Jennifer Aniston Wasn’t The Only One Who Had A Hard Time During The Friends Reunion
Filming the Friends reunion wasn’t only difficult for Jennifer Aniston but also for the entire cast. During her interview with Rob Lowe, the actress revealed that her Friends co-stars were "all kind of in a puddle" while filming the reunion.
"Even LeBlanc broke at one point. You know, Mr. Tough Guy," she explained. "You know, our brother. Mr. Impenetrable. Our big brother who would kill anybody if they looked at you wrong. Even he got a little misty."
The late Matthew Perry also had a hard time while filming Friends: The Reunion due to an emergency dental surgery. "The dental surgery just made my mouth feel like fire and it sounded like my voice was off. And I couldn’t show up. So what I chose to do was go and just do the best that I could," Perry revealed during an interview with ABC News.
Despite being in extreme pain, the actor managed to give a rather emotional speech when he reflected on the unbreakable bond he formed with his Friends co-stars after a decade working together.
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