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Jennifer Aniston is reminiscing on the “magic” of her early Friends days. In a new interview with People, the actor looked back on the sitcom, on which she played Rachel Green for 10 seasons, and recalled one of the first cast photoshoots in Series 1.
“I think we were holding a sheet over us and I don’t know what that meant,” Aniston recollected. “Oh, everything was the most exciting thing on the planet. It was just magic. Nothing was not exciting. Everything was exciting.”
2024 marks 30 years since Friends’ debut. Along with Aniston, the sitcom starred Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), David Schwimmer (Ross Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), and the late Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), and followed the lives of six twenty-somethings in New York City’s West Village.
Speaking to People, Aniston also remembered visiting the Friends set for the first time at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. “I do remember stepping onto the set and I don’t know, it was just magic. It was the best.”
She continued, “The cast that I met, the show that I was able to be on that has touched so many people and continues to touch people — that’s probably the most important.”
Aniston also shared the “many” life lessons she learned during her early Friends days, revealing what she would tell her younger self. “That feeling when it wasn’t about ‘making it’ but just working — maintain that,” she explained, adding, “Patience, to be kind, to respect your fellow actors. And just tell the truth.”
This isn’t the first time Aniston has reminisced on Friends as of late. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in 2023, the actor recalled being cast in the series. “I had auditioned the day before. I really wanted it really badly,” she explained. “I just gave it my all and came home. I think it was that day, by 2 p.m. that same day I got the job.”
In an April 2023 interview with PopSugar, the actor also disclosed that she regretted a “big splurge” with her first Friends paycheck, revealing that she purchased a “Mercedes that had a for sale sign on it.” Aniston continued. “I drove it, and then drove it again. And it never drove again. It was a lemon.”
