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

nypost.com:

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.