Jennifer Aniston Almost Lost the Part of Rachel on 'Friends'

Jennifer Aniston was nearly not Rachel Greene!

The 52-year-old Friends actress made an appearance on Gayle King’s SiriusXM show Gayle King in the House.

During the appearance, Jennifer spoke about the story of the producer who told her Friends wouldn’t make her a star, and how that almost led to her losing the part of Rachel.

Here’s what happened…

Friends director James Burrows also warned her that the show she was already on, Muddling Through, would get picked up for another season “just to spite this show,” putting her casting in serious jeopardy.

“Sure enough, they actually did. They picked it up just for three episodes. And so that’s when other girls – and then Friends sort of had a moment of, ‘Ooh, we should start just having a backup for Rachel,’” she said.

“And then I remember my friends calling me saying, ‘I’m auditioning for Rachel. Will you help me with the…’ And I was like, what? What? I had a couple of girlfriends. Yeah. So they were fine trying to find backups if this other show went beyond those three episodes. And I just went to the producer and I said, ‘please, please let me out of this show. I really love this other show that I’m doing.’ And because someone said, what could it hurt? Just go in there and ask to be let off. And he that’s when he said ‘I’ve seen that show Friends, I saw that show. I saw the pilot. That’s not going to make you a star. This show will make you a star.” And then the rest is history.”

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