Featured Image Credit: NBC
Topics: Friends, Jennifer Aniston, Saturday Night Live, TV and Film
Michael Slavin
Topics: Friends, Jennifer Aniston, Saturday Night Live, TV and Film
Reese Witherspoon had an iconic two episode appearance in Friends, in which she played Rachel Green’s sister.
Starring alongside Jennifer Aniston, she played younger sister Jill in episodes The One With Rachel’s Sister and The One Where Chandler Can’t Cry.
The season six two episode run was loved by viewers, leading producers to ask Witherspoon to come back.
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In a later interview alongside Aniston though, she revealed the specific reason why she said no.
The pair were doing press for The Morning Show, where they reunited years later to appear on an AppleTV+ show.
It began with Witherspoon praising Aniston’s ability to act in front of a live audience, as Friends was shot, before Aniston said back: "You are [good] too. You forget it because you blacked out of fear. She was so good and you were flawless.”
Witherspoon added she’d ‘never done it again’, before saying: "Did you know they asked me back and I said, ‘No, I can’t do it.’ I was too scared."
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Witherspoon’s reason was wildly relatable, but shocked Aniston, who retorted: "How dare… you say this."
She also added that Saturday Night Live is 'terrifying', which she has hosted two times.
Witherspoon’s time acting on the show came early in her career, when she was just 23-years-old and fresh off of American Psycho.
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Her two episode run also came just a year before she played the iconic Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.
When reminiscing on her time on the set of the iconic sitcom, she said in an interview with Harper Bazaar US: “[Jennifer] was so sweet to me. I was really nervous, and she was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, don’t worry about it!’
"I marvelled at her ability to perform in front of a live audience like that with no nerves. They would change all the lines and she was just so effortlessly affable, bubbly, and sunny. We’ve been friends ever since."
She added: "I was 23 years old and had just had a baby. I was nursing [her daughter] Ava on set, and Jen just kept going, 'You have a baby?'
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"I was like, ‘I know, it’s weird.’ I remember her being like, ‘Where are you going?’ And I was like, ‘I’m pumping!"
Though Witherspoon never returned to Friends, she has spoken out recently about the upcoming Legally Blonde prequel, in which she act as an Executive Producer.
Witherspoon is currently watching audition tapes for the part, and added in an interview with Jimmy Fallon: “I saw that Wednesday Addams show and I was like, ‘Oh, she was in high school.’ I loved it. I watched every episode. I thought it was amazing.
“I was like, ‘We should do Elle Woods in high school because I wanted to see who she was before college, before law school.’
“I started having all these ideas and these amazing writers came up with a great pitch and now Amazon is making the show and it’s called Elle.”