Although all the lead actors on Friends felt a special connection to their characters, Jennifer Aniston and Rachel actually shared similar episodes in their past. Friends is an iconic TV show and one of the best sitcoms ever, and despite having ended almost two decades ago, it is still universally beloved all around the world. The lead actors are superstars even though their career paths after Friends were very different: be it Jennifer Aniston or Matthew Perry, people still love them for their Friends characters.
Back in 1994, when the show was only starting off, it was more of an experiment than anything else, and it didn’t have nearly enough budget to attract high-tier actors. That’s why the creators of Friends were looking for young and aspiring performers, and they found their folks – a brilliant cast who later became superstars thanks to the show. Fortunately, this restriction partially became the reason why Friends found the perfect actors for their roles as the young guys who were eventually chosen, shared many similarities to their characters.
Matt LeBlanc, like many aspiring actors, once played his dream role just like himself before Friends. However, he was not the only one. Jennifer Aniston also shared many uncanny similarities with her character Rachel Green. Just like Rachel, the actress was a waitress in New York before finding her dream job. And just like Rachel, she was terrible at her previous job – not the waitress gig but the telemarketer one.
Jennifer Aniston denies ever making a sale during her time working at the same job as Rachel, her character on Friends. She shared that she had a close family member working with her on Days of Our Lives, but it was not a friend named Joey. Despite not having much in common personality-wise, Aniston’s life experiences aligned with her character’s, which helped her nail all the auditions and ultimately land her long-anticipated breakthrough in the movie industry, not fashion. However, if she had gone for a career in fashion, she would have excelled too, as Rachel Green did, and Aniston was the perfect real-life embodiment of her character.