Jennifer Grey appeared in the first season of “Friends” as Mindy, former best friend of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) who wound up marrying Rachel’s ex-fiancé, who she jilted at the altar in the series pilot.
Speaking with MediaVillage, Grey recalled that she was initially thrilled with being cast in the role, given that she’d become a big fan of the show.
Once she arrived on set, however, everything changed.
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“When I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script,” explained the “Dirty Dancing” star.
“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,” she added. “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,”
According to Grey, she didn’t realize it, she “had a lot of performance anxiety, and I just didn’t understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department.”
That anxiety, she admitted, also prevented her from other showbiz opportunities. “Like when they asked me to do ‘Saturday Night Live’, I just couldn’t,” she said. “I said ‘No.’ I was just too scared.”
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That was why, when she was asked to return to play Mindy again, she turned down the offer, with Jana Marie Hupp recast as Mindy.
“They got someone else to play the role,” Grey said. “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.”
Added Grey: “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.”
