Jennifer Gray says anxiety stopped her from reprising ‘Friends’ role

(CNN) Jennifer Gray She revealed that ‘bad anxiety’ prevented her from reprising her role in ‘friendswhere she opened up about her time on the show.

Although she was initially enthusiastic, as “a fan of the show,” ashen The website said MediaVillage that when it came to filming her scenes, “I got really worried because they kept changing the script.

She added, “It’s very hard being a guest star because you’re not a part of it, and you’re really trying to figure everything 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 I could barely do it.”

Gray appeared at the end of the show’s first season as Mindy, Rachel’s maid of honor and best friend, who is having an affair with Barry, an orthodontist, and eventually marries Rachel.

The role was later recast, with Jana Marie Hope appearing in the final episode of the second season, “The One with Barry and Mindy’s Wedding”.

“When they asked me to come back, I said I couldn’t,” said Gray. “They got someone else to play the role. It saddens me that I’m going to say no to continuing friends…because of my anxiety. The truth is, I wish I had people to help me overcome that kind of fear. But I couldn’t be there until I was there.”

Gray, best known for her roles in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” recalls that anxiety kept her from pursuing other career opportunities, including hosting “Saturday Night Live.”

“I didn’t know at the time what was going on with me,” she said. “But I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I didn’t understand at the time that I needed help in the anxiety department.”

But Gray says she’s now able to extract some positives from the experience, adding that “whatever you do in life, especially the hard things, the things that are really painful and hard, are usually the things that are the most fulfilling and helpful.”