Actress Jennifer Grey said she was supposed to have a recurring role on the hit NBC comedy “Friends” but decided to decline the offer due to “anxiety.”
The popular sitcom aired from 1994 until 2004 and became a cultural phenomenon. In addition to the six main cast members, many celebrities took on supporting roles over the years, including Grey. The “Dirty Dancing” alum appeared as Mindy Hunter, a woman who was having an affair with Rachel Green’s (Jennifer Aniston) then fiancé, Dr. Barry Farber. Mindy asks Rachel to be her maid of honor in her wedding to Barry.
“I was a fan of the show, and I got the call to do it,” Grey told MediaVillage, per Fox News. “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,” she said.
“I didn’t know at the time what was going on with me,” the actress continued. “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.”
The 63-year-old celebrity said these feelings were enough for her to turn down the opportunity to return for the second season of “Friends.”
“When they asked me to come back, I said I couldn’t,” Grey said.
“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 said. “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.”
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The “Dirty Dancing” star said “Friends” wasn’t the only role she turned down. Grey also said no to hosting “Saturday Night Live” because of anxiety. “I just couldn’t,” she said, explaining how she was “just too scared.”
“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.”
The role of Mindy was recast going forward on “Friends.”