Before Friends, Jennifer Aniston had two flops and was under contract to another show. How she nearly lost Rachel.
A Hollywood Kid Told Not to Act
Jennifer Aniston was born on February 11, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, California. Her father, John Aniston, was a soap opera actor, and her godfather was Telly Savalas. Her father discouraged her from acting and urged her toward law school. In 1980, he left the family, and for years he was in and out of her life.
She studied at New York’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. To pay the bills, she worked as a waitress, a telemarketer and a bike messenger.
vogue.com
Two Flops and a Contract
In 1990, she starred in two TV series, Molloy and a show based on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Both were canceled quickly.
In 1994, CBS cast her in the sitcom Muddling Through. She had already filmed six episodes when the producers of a new NBC comedy wanted her for the role of Rachel Green. She was still under contract to CBS, so if Muddling Through became a hit, Friends would lose her. Co-creator David Crane said they would have had to reshoot the first three episodes.
A producer on her CBS show told her that his show wasn’t going to make her a star, and that Friends would.
The Role of a Lifetime
Muddling Through aired its last episode on September 7, 1994. Fifteen days later, on September 22, 1994, Friends premiered. It ran for 10 seasons. In the final season, she and her female costars earned $1 million per episode. In 2002, she won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
ebay.ca
Here’s the surprising part. Despite all that success, she wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until her 20s, after a routine eye exam.
The Battles Off Camera
Fame brought relentless tabloid scrutiny. In 2016, she wrote an essay criticizing the constant pregnancy rumors and said she was fed up. In November 2022, at 53, she revealed that she had spent years trying to have a baby through IVF. She said she was throwing everything at it and wished someone had told her to freeze her eggs.
She was estranged from her mother, Nancy Dow, for at least a decade after Dow wrote a tell-all book. They reconciled about a year before Dow died in 2016. Her father later apologized for leaving, and they reconciled as best they could before his death in 2022.
scmp.com
A Second Act
In 2019, she returned to TV as a star and producer of The Morning Show. In January 2020, the role won her a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Her story is a reminder that rejection and setbacks aren’t the end. Sometimes the right door opens only after a few others close.
