Yahoo News Jennifer Grey Reveals Why She Never Returned To Friends After Her First Guest Stint
Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Grey in the first season of Friends
Jennifer Grey has admitted she made the decision not to return to Friends after her first guest appearance, as she found filming to be such an anxiety-inducing experience.
The Dirty Dancing star played Rachel’s former BFF Mindy in one episode of the award-winning sitcom’s first season, but recently told Media Village that filming the show proved to be pretty stressful for one major reason.
“I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script,” Jennifer explained. “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.”
She continued: “I didn’t know at the time what was going on with me. But I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I just didn’t understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department.”
Jennifer Grey in 2022
Mindy later returned to Friends a few years later, with Jana Marie Hupp taking over the role that Jennifer had originated.
The Golden Globe nominee shared that she was originally approached about reprising the role, but she felt she “couldn’t”.
She recalled: “They got someone else to play the role. It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on Friends or doing Saturday Night Live because of my anxiety.
“The truth is, I wished I had people to help me navigate that kind of fear. But I couldn’t be there until I was there.”
A behind-the-scenes snap of Jennifer Grey with Jennifer Aniston on Friends
In August 2020, Jennifer announced she would be reprising her most famous role as Frances “Baby” Houseman in a new sequel to Dirty Dancing.
However, last year she revealed that fans could be in for a bit of a long wait, as she wanted to make sure the film was “perfect”.
