Jennifer Aniston is not the original actress that producers picked to play the role of Rachel in Friends, the sitcom which catapulted her to fame.
Jennifer Aniston is best known for playing the role of Rachel Green on NBC’s sitcom Friends. However, it turned out that the role was offered to someone else before her.
Jennifer Aniston not the top pick for Friends’ Rachel
Jennifer Aniston became a household name thanks to scoring a role in Friends, the highly-successful sitcom on NBC that ran for 10 seasons. But she was actually not the first choice to play the iconic character of Rachel Green, Regina Leader Post reported on its Sept. 28 issue.
Jane Sibbett who also played Carol on the show revealed that the role was first offered to her. However, she had to pass to the opportunity because she was pregnant at the time.
“I actually was up for another character. They wanted me to be one of the main six,” she told news.com.au.
“It was actually Rachel but I usually don’t tell people that because Jen … There’s no one who could’ve done it like Jen.”
She asked her agents if they would tell the producers that she was pregnant, but they said they won’t and would only tell it later. Sibbett didn’t think it was okay to keep her pregnancy a secret. So, they told the producers who said it wouldn’t work.
Sibbett still scored a role in the show
Eventually, the role was offered to Jennifer Aniston and it made her an A-list Hollywood star. Meanwhile, Sibbett got a call after giving birth to her son telling her that they were replacing Carol.
Carol is Ross’ (David Schwimmer) ex-wife. She left him because she realized that she was a lesbian.
Speaking about her character, she noted that she came from a conservative Christian family. Her dad had a Bible study when Friends aired at 8 o’clock because he wasn’t comfortable with it.
But after a few years, people were sending her dad articles on how the characters handled such a delicate subject. He began to understand them.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jennifer Aniston (@jenniferaniston) on
Aniston had to lose weight for the role
Meanwhile, it wasn’t an easy job for Jennifer Aniston to play Rachel. In fact, she almost lost it because of her weight.
According to Saul Austerlitz’s book Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show that Defined a Television Era Aniston’s weight was an issue. She was not fat but had to lose 30 pounds because the camera adds 10 pounds.
Aniston admitted that she used to live an unhealthy lifestyle. She ate too many mayonnaise sandwiches. But she decided to be healthy because she wants to remain vibrant when she is 80 and older.
Image used courtesy of Angela George / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)