The Real (And Frankly Sad) Story Behind Jennifer Grey Not Being Recast on Friends

Jennifer Grey (Baby from Dirty Dancing) once appeared to have the acting world at her feet. But, after starring alongside Patrick Swayze in the 1987 classic, her career perhaps didn't reach the heights you might have expected.

However, she did appear in season 1 of Friends as Mindy Rachel Green's one-time best friend who was now set to marry Rachel Green's on-time fiancé.

Fast forward to Mindy's reappearance in season 2, though, and the part had been recast.

Here's why.

Talking to MediaVillage, Grey described how she declined the opportunity to reprise her role due to 'performance anxiety', with the part going to Jana Marie Hupp instead. As a fan of the show, she'd been looking forward to making a guest appearance on Friends.

But it seems things weren't quite what she imagined they would be like once she stepped foot on the set. Her anxiety, she said, was largely down to the fact, 'they kept changing the script'. She described how it was 'very hard to be a guest star' adding that she didn't feel 'part of it' and was 'trying to figure it all out.'

But it wasn't just Jennifer Grey who was having to work things out. She said the showrunners 'were trying to figure out what the character was, what the scene was' and, as result, 'it was changing, and changing, and changing'.

'It made me so anxious' she said, 'that I could barely do it'. None of this was helped by Grey not realising at the time that she 'needed help in the anxiety department'.

So, when asked to come back as Mindy, she turned down the role.

'It makes me sad,' she went on, 'that I would say no to continuing on Friends or doing Saturday Night Live because of my anxiety.'

We'll never know whether Mindy would have had a bigger part to play as a recurring character had Jennifer Grey opted to reprise the role – or whether her performance anxiety had a part to play in the actor's career not taking off in the way it looked like it would. Partly because these issues weren't really acknowledged at the time – let alone dealt with.

'The truth is,' Grey said, 'I wished I had people to help me navigate that kind of fear. But I couldn't be there until I was there.'

Source: MediaVillage.