Jennifer Grey reveals she declined ‘Friends’ role due to anxiety

Actress Jennifer Grey, 63, is opening up about her time on the hit 1990’s sitcom, “Friends” – and why it was ultimately cut short.

The “Dirty Dancing” star played the role of Mindy for one episode, who teams up with Rachel Greene – Jennifer Aniston’s character – to confront orthodontist Barry about his cheating ways.

However, Grey revealed that she was plagued with anxiety during her time on the show, which is what led her to turn down a reprising role.

“I was a fan of the show, and I got the call to do it,” Grey told Media Village in an interview this week. “Then when I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script.”

She continued, explaining that it was difficult to play a guest role on the sitcom because things kept changing.

“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.”

Grey explained that at the time, she had a lot of “performance anxiety,” even though she may not have realized it in the moment.

Anxiety was something that she would carry with her during certain parts of her career – including when she was asked to be a part of “Saturday Night Live.”

“I always just [felt] like I wished I had the ability to do things,” she admitted. “Like when they asked me to do Saturday Night Live, I just couldn’t. I said ‘No.’ I was just too scared.”

During season two, Mindy came back for another appearance, but this time, her character was played by Jana Marie Hupp and not Grey, who had turned the role down.

“It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on “Friends” or doing “Saturday Night Live” because of my anxiety,” Grey told the outlet.

“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.”

However, since “Friends,” Grey has pushed herself to conquer her fears, and even went on to star on season 11 of “Dancing With The Stars” in 2010, and ended up winning the competition with partner Derek Hough.

During the show, she paid tribute to her “Dirty Dancing” costar Patrick Swayze, performing a Viennese waltz to the song “These Arms of Mine,” which was a tune featured on the movie’s soundtrack, according to Entertainment Weekly.

And, it looks like Grey will continue to try to beat her anxiety and take on more acting roles – last year, it was announced that she would be returning to star in the upcoming sequel of the 1987 hit, “Dirty Dancing.”

She will reprise her role of Frances “Baby” Houseman.

This isn’t the first time that “Dirty Dancing” has tried to expand into other projects – in 2004, they made a prequel movie called ““Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” which didn’t have much to do with the original flick.

In 2017, ABC put on a made-for-TV “Dirty Dancing” remake that spanned a three-hour time slot.