Jennifer Aniston Says the ‘Friends’ Reunion Was So Emotional, She Had to Walk Out Several Times
Earlier this year, the main ensemble of Friends got together for a belated reunion, celebrating twenty-seven years since the original show premiered. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer – joined by the likes of James Corden, David Beckham, and Justin Bieber – got together to revisit show sets, meet with guests who once appeared on the series as celebrity guests, and do table reads and re-enactments of the most iconic episodes.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Aniston relays the emotional impact of appearing on the special, saying she found the experience “harder than anticipated”. In her words:
“Time travel is hard. 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. They get you there and it’s like, “Oh right, I hadn’t thought about what was going on the last time I was actually here.” And it just took me by surprise because 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?” 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.”
Memory Lane can be a difficult trip at the best of times, and it sounds like Aniston and the broader cast didn’t quite expect such raw emotionality to arise. The actor also spoke about her career aspirations after the show, describing her “shape-shifting” expectations:
“That was what was jarring, that we all had an idea of what the future was going to be and we were going to go hunker down and focus on this or that and then it all just changed overnight, and that was it. But again, everything’s a blessing if you’re able to look at life’s ups and downs in that way. And if it all hadn’t happened, I would not be sitting here the woman that I am.”
Aniston currently stars in The Morning Show, Apple TV+’s drama covering a popular breakfast news program broadcast from New York City. She spoke to us about the show’s current season and, pertinently, how she prepares for filming a really emotional scene, and you can find the conversation here.
