Jennifer Aniston Reflects on Her Early Days on ‘Friends’: “It Was Just Magic”

This September 22, Friends will celebrate 30 years since its premiere in 1994, and one of its six stars, Jennifer Aniston, is reminiscing on the “magic” of her early days on the show.

Speaking to People, Aniston—who played Rachel Green for the show’s 10 seasons—reflected one of the first cast photoshoots she took part in with Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer: “I think we were holding a sheet over us and I don’t know what that meant,” she said. “Oh, everything was the most exciting thing on the planet. It was just magic. Nothing was not exciting. Everything was exciting.”

The show followed the lives of six twentysomethings living in New York City’s West Village. Though set in New York City, the show was shot at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. “I do remember stepping onto the set and I don’t know, it was just magic,” Aniston said. “It was the best. The cast that I met, the show that I was able to be on that has touched so many people and continues to touch people—that’s probably the most important.”

Aniston shared that she learned “so many” life lessons during her early Friends days, and said she would tell her younger self “that feeling when it wasn’t about ‘making it’ but just working—maintain that,” she said, adding she’d also tell herself about “Patience, to be kind, to respect your fellow actors. And just tell the truth.”

After Perry’s shocking death last October, Friends has been top of mind for Aniston frequently as of late. She told The Wall Street Journal last year of being cast in the series “I had auditioned the day before. I really wanted it really badly. I just gave it my all and came home. I think it was that day, by 2 p.m. that same day, I got the job.”

Looking back deeper into 1994, Aniston revealed in an April 2023 interview with PopSugar that she regretted a “big splurge” she purchased with her first paycheck from Friends. She revealed that she purchased a “Mercedes that had a ‘For Sale’ sign on it,” and added “I drove it, and then drove it again. And it never drove again. It was a lemon.”