Jennifer Gray revealed why she won’t be reprising her role in it friends.
the dirty dancing Star played Mindy in the hit sitcom. Mindy is Rachel’s (Jennifer Aniston) ex-best friend and maid of honor, who ends up marrying her fiancé, Barry (Mitchell Whitfield).
Gray only starred in one episode of friends in 1995’s “The One With the Wicked Orthodontist”.
during an interview with MediaVillageGray revealed her reason for not playing the character again even though she was initially excited about the role.
“When I did that, I got really anxious because they kept changing the script,” she explained.
“It’s very hard being a guest because you’re not a part of it, and you’re really trying to figure everything out.”
The actor continued, “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 said at the time that she did not understand the feelings she was having but later understood them as “performance anxiety”.
Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc in a promotional shot for Friends season 6 “The Episode That Could Be.”
((Photo by Getty Images))
“I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I didn’t understand at the time that I needed help with the anxiety department,” she said.
Gray went on to explain that she turned down an opportunity to star Saturday Night Live For similar reasons. “I said no.’ “I was so scared,” the actor recalled.
When Gray was asked to reprise her role as Mindy, she felt she couldn’t and they had to recruit a different actor.
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“They got someone else to play the part,” she recalls. “It saddens me that I will say no to continuing friends or done Saturday Night Live 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.”
Jana Marie Hope was recast as the character Mindy.
Gray continued: “In life, I always learn more about the things you feel like failures, successes, you don’t learn much, even though it might be fun. But it’s all part of life.”
Last year, Gray opened up about her off-screen relationship with her late co-star, Patrick Swayze.
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