Jennifer Grey reveals why she was replaced on ‘Friends’

Jennifer Grey guest starred on the first season of the sitcom but was replaced by a different actress in a later episode – now she’s revealed why.

Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey has revealed why a different actress replaced her role on the hit sitcom, Friends.

The US actress, now 63, portrayed the role of Mindy – the best friend of Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) – in episode 20 of the first season in 1995.

But when the role of Mindy returned late in the second season, Grey was replaced by actress Jana Marie Hupp.

Speaking to MediaVillage, Grey admitted to being a “huge fan” of the show when she was asked to guest star, but her experience filming the comedy put her off wanting to reprise Mindy later on.

“When I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script. It’s very hard to be a guest star because you’re not a part of it, and you’re really trying to figure it all out,” she said.

“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 that I could barely do it.”

Jennifer Grey played Mindy, the best friend of Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green.

Grey said her “performance anxiety” saw her decline the chance to return as Mindy the following year. Around the same time, she also turned down the chance to host Saturday Night Live.

“It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on Friends or doing Saturday Night Live because of my anxiety. The truth is, I wished I had people to help me navigate that kind of fear, but I couldn’t be there until I was there,” she said.

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Grey declined to reprise her role on Friends. Picture: Valerie Macon/AFP

In the pilot episode of Friends, which aired in 1994, Rachel appears at Central Perk in a wedding dress after bailing on her fiance Barry (Mitchell Whitfield) at the altar. It turned out Barry was having an affair with Mindy behind Rachel’s back.

Nineteen episodes later we finally meet Mindy (Grey) when she asks Rachel to be the maid-of-honour at her and Barry’s upcoming wedding. In the episode, ‘The One With The Evil Orthodontist’, Barry feels he may still have feelings for Rachel, before ultimately deciding to stay with Mindy.

Flash forward to the 24th episode of season two ‘The One with Barry and Mindy’s Wedding’ and Mindy was instead played by Hupp.

Rachel was the maid of honour at Barry and Mindy's wedding, where Mindy was portrayed by Jana Marie Hupp.

While she was “sad” she declined the opportunity to return, Grey said she’s thankful it highlighted an issue she needed to work on.

“Everything you do in life, especially the hard things, the really painful, difficult things, are usually the things that are the most instructive and helpful,” she said.

“In life, I always learn more from things that you feel like a failure at, and the successes, you don’t learn as much, although, they might be fun. But it’s all a part of life.”