While the Friends Reunion was one of our highlights of 2021, the walk down memory lane wasn't as pleasant for one of the show's stars, Jennifer Aniston.
In an intimate sitdown with The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary actress revealed that returning to the set that she'd called home for ten seasons wasn't easy - in fact, it reminded her of arguably the "hardest time" in her life. "Time travel is hard," the Emmy Award-winning star explained of her time on the Friends set. "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.'" But the reality was far different from what she'd envisioned. "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.'"
Safe to say that Jennifer felt taken"by surprise" by the emotions that came up. "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?'"As overcome as Aniston felt, at the moment, she didn't get a chance to process. "It was all very jarring and, of your, 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," the 52-year-old actress confessed. "I don't know how they cut around it."
As tricky as the reunion proved to be, Jennifer was also able to see the positive by returning to the set. Friends played a major part in a career that the actress described as "nothing but blessed." Emotionally, it was a different story. "[It was] more personal stuff that I had expectations about that sort of shape-shifted." But at the end of the day, she wouldn't change a thing because the rollercoaster turned her into the "woman that I am."
You can read more from Jennifer's honest Q&A here. And be sure to check back soon for more updates from the world of comedy.
