This year is a big one for the cast of Friends, as they celebrate 30 years since one of the best sitcoms of all time premiered on NBC. The milestone is especially poignant as it comes a year after losing one of the six leads, with Matthew Perry’s death in October 2023. Just the mention of the show was enough to bring Jennifer Aniston to tears in a recent interview, but she insisted it was a happy cry, as she recalled the day Friends premiered, when she and Perry played a prank on Lisa Kudrow.
Jennifer Aniston Gets Emotional Thinking About Friends
Jennifer Aniston sat down with Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, and the two talked about their respective hit sitcoms. At a producer’s suggestion that Brunson ask Aniston what it’s like to watch Friends now, Aniston immediately became emotional. Brunson asked her if she wanted to take a minute, but she insisted she was OK. Aniston said:
No, no, sorry, I just started thinking about… Yeah, no, I’m OK. It’s a happy tear.
The actress, who played Rachel Green on the Must See TV series alongside a main cast that also included Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, seemed overwhelmed by the emotion, and it’s impossible to know what memory specifically caused Jennifer Aniston to have such a reaction.
This was far from the first time Friends memories have gotten to Jennifer Aniston, though. After Friends: The Reunion aired in 2021, she recalled that it was “so creepy” how everything on the set was exactly the same, and admitted that she had to walk out at certain points to gather herself.
Matthew Perry And Jennifer Aniston Pranked Lisa Kudrow On Friends’ Premiere Day
Jennifer Aniston said it was wild to think that it was 30 years ago when America first saw Rachel run into Central Perk, soaking wet in a wedding dress, because she remembers that day — September 22, 1994 — so clearly. She recalled:
I remember the day that it was going to premiere on television, on NBC. Me and Matthew Perry were having lunch somewhere, and we knew Lisa was getting her hair colored, so we ran into the hair salon, and I snuck up, she was in the sink, hair bowl, and I took the nozzle and just started, like, washing her hair from the guy that was supposed to be doing it. And it definitely flew out of control, and that was unfortunate. But the excitement we had, it feels like yesterday.
There is something so heart-warming about the fact that after everything that cast went through together over those 10 years and everything that’s happened in the two decades since the series finale, that prank from the day the show premiered is one of the memories that sticks out for Jennifer Aniston.
Friends remains a huge part of Jennifer Aniston’s life, for obvious reasons, as the sitcom maintains its popularity, even after 30 years. If you want to relive any of your favorite moments, all 10 seasons plus the reunion special can be streamed with a Max subscription.