Jennifer Grey explains why her guest role on 'Friends' was recast

Jennifer Grey is opening up about the anxiety that plagued her throughout her career.

In a revealing new interview with MediaVillage, the Dirty Dancing legend, 63, revealed that her anxiety level was so severe during the '90s that it caused her to turn down the opportunity to reprise her role as Mindy, Rachel Green's former best friend, on the hit series Friends.

While she initially jumped at the opportunity to guest star on the show opposite Jennifer Aniston, the experience took a toll on her mental health.

"I was a fan of the show, and I got the call to do it. Then when I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script," Grey explained of the 1995 appearance, in which it's revealed that her character ended up going on Rachel's planned honeymoon with Barry, the man she left at the altar. "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. 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."

Because her appearance on Friends was so successful, Grey was later asked to reprise her role for the show's Season 2 finale in 1996, in which Mindy weds Barry. However, she couldn't deal with the stress of it, and actress Jana Marie Hupp took over the part.

"When they asked me to come back, I said I couldn't," she shared. "They got someone else to play the role."

Grey also noted that she turned down Saturday Night Live because of her overwhelming anxiety.

"I always just felt like I wished I had the ability to do things. Like when they asked me to do Saturday Night Live, I just couldn't. I said 'No.' I was just too scared," she recalled. "It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on Friends or doing Saturday Night Live because of my anxiety. 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."

Grey shared that she "didn't know at the time what was going on with me," but later learned that she was struggling with "a lot of performance anxiety." Looking back, she "just didn't understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department."

The Ferris Bueller's Day Off star said she's grateful for the lessons she learned early in her career.

"Everything you do in life, especially the hard things, the really painful, difficult things, are usually the things that are the most instructive and helpful," she admitted. "In life, I always learn more from things that you feel like a failure at, and the successes, you don't learn as much, although they might be fun. But it's all a part of life."

She also made it clear that "nobody's complaining" about her struggles.

"It's such a weird thing to be an actor, and it's hard to make a living, make a career, to work and to do what you love doing," she explained. "We all appreciate all the gifts that come our way, and it is such an incredible honor every time we get to act."

Grey has dealt with ups and downs in recent years, as well. In 2020, she and her husband Clark Gregg split after 19 years of marriage, revealing their decision in a joint Instagram post. However, they noted that they "remain close and are deeply grateful for the life we've shared and the wonderful daughter we've raised."

Grey went on to release her autobiography, Out of the Corner, in 2022.