Episode 20 of the first season of Friends. When Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) seemed to have put her past behind her with her ex-fiancé Barry, suddenly he appears in her life. But he’s not coming alone, the dentist is in a relationship with his former bridesmaid, Mindy (Jennifer Grey). The two friends reunite after a while and find that Barry is cheating on them both.
This was the chapter in which loyal followers of the hit sitcom Friends witnessed the “cameo” of the protagonist of dirty dance. But what many don’t know is that Gray wasn’t going to be a sporadic character, but a possible secondary actress who would appear, at least, in one more chapter; el último de la temporada —’The one with Barry and Mindy’s wedding’—.
In this one, the one about Barry and Mindy’s wedding, audiences expected to find the actress who brought the naive Baby from the late ’80s film to life, but, instead, they saw another performer playing Mindy: why?
That’s what many wondered when they saw that the NBC series had replaced the protagonist of dirty dance by another actress, as they did before with Anita Barone, the first Carol who was later changed to interpreter Jane Sibbett.
Jennifer Gray’s anxiety in Friends
The reason for his notorious absence has now been explained by Jennifer Grey, almost 30 years laterin an interview at Deadline. In it, the actress confessed that it was her own decision, despite the fact that she was delighted to participate in the fiction: “I was a fan of the series and they called me.”
However, playing a secondary character in a series as famous as Friends It was not easy. “I didn’t have a good time because They created me a lot of anxiety by changing the script all the time,” he began to explain.
“It was really hard to be a guest star on Friends, because you were not part of their dynamic. While you were trying to fit in, they kept changing the character over and over,” he confessed.
“It made me so anxious that I barely did it,” Gray lamented. So when she was asked to continue playing Mindy, she was forced to decline the offer: “It gave me a lot of anxiety, so they hired another actress to play Mindy. I wish someone would help me deal with my feelings“.