NEWSJennifer Aniston's 'Friends' Costars Were Jealous Of The 'Special Treatment' She Received On Set, Claims Source
Apr. 11 2022, Published 12:21 p.m. ET
Though the Friends reunion was filled with smiles, laughs and happy tears, an insider claims the cast wasn't always on good terms with one another. In particular, a source claimed that tensions rose on set during the later years when Jennifer Aniston started branching out into more movie roles.
"Jealousy was rare, but Jen's special treatment during the final seasons created some bad feelings," the source spilled to Us Weekly. "No one wanted to deny her success, but their ability to negotiate together was simply diminished because of her arrangement. Everyone was getting movies offers, but she was the only one who got [VIP] treatment."
The insider is referring to the costars monumental contract deal in 2002, when they became the first cast to negotiate equal pay for all six leads, which aside from Aniston, included Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. They each earned $1 million per episode.
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The final season was also filled with trouble for other reasons, including a few issues with Perry, who has struggled with addiction.
Last month, actor Danny Bonaduce was on on David Yontef's podcast "Behind the Velvet Rope" when he claimed the 17 Again star, 52, didn't want to film the last batch of episodes. "The last season of Friends, he said 'I just can't do it. I'm not going to do it,'" Bonaduce recalled. "But he had already done it. This was a tale in retrospect, he had already done it."
Cox has also admitted that her time filming the hit sitcom remains murky.
While appearing on Sunday Sitdown, the mom-of-one, 55, reflected on what it was like to film the recent HBO Max special, to which she confessed, "I should’ve watched all 10 seasons because when I did the reunion and was asked questions, I was like, 'I don’t remember being there. I don’t remember filming so many episodes.'"
Friends aired from 1994 to 2004, and the gang's reunion special debuted in May 2021.
