Almost four months after the debut of the Friends reunion, Jennifer Aniston revealed the surprising reaction her co-stars had to filming the celebrated look back.
If you asked the Friends cast “How you doin’?” following the reunion, their answers may’ve surprised you.
During the Sept. 16 episode of Literally,, Jennifer Aniston discussed filming the headline making reunion and the toll it took on herself and her former co-stars. Per The Morning Show actress, coming together and reliving moments from the iconic NBC sitcom “really took us all down way harder than we anticipated.”
“In your mind you think, ‘Oh, this will be really fun to time travel,’” she told host Rob Lowe. “It turns out, ooh, ouch, it’s kind of hard to time travel.”
As she continued, Aniston highlighted how surreal it was to see the set, which had “the exact same everything, down to the little tchotchkes on the shelves.” And while the Friends set remained the same, Aniston made it clear that she and her former co-stars—Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt Le Blanc, Mathew Perry and David Schwimmer—had not.
“You know, [in] 16 years, a lot has gone on for each of us,” she added. “And 16 years ago, we were all sort of wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, and sort of had our whole lives ahead of us—even though we were heartbroken to say goodbye to these 10 years and this family and these people and the job we all love to do.”
Aniston compared working on Friends to taking “a happy pill every single day,” so, returning for the reunion was more sentimental than she could’ve anticipated. “It’s nostalgic in a way that’s kind of also a little melancholy,” she explained. “‘Cause a lot has changed, and we have all gone down different roads. Some easy and some not so easy for each of us.”
Picture credit: HBO MAXFriends Reunion was brutal
After calling the reunion “brutal,” Aniston quipped that she couldn’t stop crying even though there were cameras everywhere. Thankfully, the 52-year-old actress wasn’t alone in her emotions, as she recalled, “There was a period where we were all kind of in a puddle. Maybe David didn’t, I don’t think we broke David.”
Yet, Aniston was surprised that LeBlanc broke down in tears, calling him “Mr. Tough Guy.”
“Mr. Impenetrable, our big brother,” she noted on her former co-star, “who would kill anybody if they looked at you wrong. Even he got a little misty.”
Although the experience may’ve been tough for the cast, it certainly paid off, as Friends: The Reunion was nominated for Outstanding Variety Special at the 2021 Emmy.
Picture: Instagram / Jennifer AnistonFriends Reunion:Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow
The Friends ladies reunited at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Patron of the Artists Awards in Beverly Hills in November 2019. Cox and Kudrow presented Aniston with one of two Artists Inspiration Awards.
Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA FoundationMatthew Perry and Courteney Cox
Instagram / Courteney Cox
Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston
Instagram / Courteney Cox
Joey, Monica and Rachel reunited for a fun night in October 2019.
Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox
Instagram/Lisa Kudrow
“Halfway there… #girlsnight #?” Kudrow wrote in June 2019, teasing fans about a possible reboot.
Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston
Instagram / Courteney Cox
The Friends ladies get together for Cox’s 55th birthday dinner in June 2019.
Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow
Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.
To help Courteney Cox promote her new show and Instagram, Ellen DeGeneres created a Friends set and invited Lisa Kudrow for a surprise appearance
Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry
NBC
In 2016, the two onscreen roommates reunited in London, baby! Matt caught up with Perry backstage after the latter star’s performance in his play The End Of Longing, which marked his playwriting debut.