During Jennifer Aniston’s run as Rachel Green on the hit sitcom Friends, she had several of her real partners make guest appearances on the show.
The most notable and memorable was Brad Pitt, who appeared as Will Colbert, a character who hated Rachel in high school. The guest spot is particularly unforgettable because many fans thought Pitt would play a romantic interest, instead, he ended up playing a different character. However, not all of Aniston’s guest-starring roles with partners went smoothly as there was one ex who had a challenging time during his cameo on Friends.
In 1995, Aniston began dating Tate Donovan. While the two lasted in a two-year relationship, they ended up playing each other’s love interest on Friends after they had broken up. Donovan played Rachel’s boyfriend Joshua for six episodes of Friends, as the actor once shared with the US Weekly how uncomfortable it got for him.
He shared, “I was just happy to be on the team. The only bummer was Jennifer and I were breaking up at the time. And so that was tricky to sort of act, and act like we are just meeting each other, and falling in love, or whatever, interested in each other, when we’re sort of breaking up. That was just tough.”
Donovan further expressed that although it was only six episodes, it was difficult to play the role as he recently separated from Aniston. He clarified that their relationship had ended before they worked together on the show, contrary to popular belief that they met on Friends. Despite the personal discomfort, Donovan appreciated how the cast supported him during this tough time.
He expressed, “Those six people were amazing to me. They were fantastic. It wasn’t cliquey for me at all. I was lucky. The good thing that came out of it was that everyone was really cool about it, and really as helpful as they could be … In other words, they were just compassionate, very compassionate about the whole breakup.”
The actor felt that the rest of the cast was impressed by his professionalism given the painful circumstances. He explained that he could handle a difficult breakup and still perform his role effectively. Reflecting on the experience, he appreciated how well he was treated by the cast sharing, “It was really ultimately a great experience of how people can treat you really well, and you still do your job even though you’re sort of dying inside.”
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