Jennifer Aniston Says Friends Reunion Forced Her to Revisit 'Hardest Time' in Her Life

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter for their "Women In Entertainment" issue, the actress opened up about shooting the HBO Max special, during which she reunited with her former castmates Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry. Aniston, 52, explained why the reunion was so difficult for her emotionally, revealing that she had to "walk out at certain points" during filming.

When THR noted that the actress has said the special was "harder on [her] than [she] anticipated," she simply answered, "Time travel is hard," before then elaborating. "I think we were just so naive walking into it, thinking, 'How fun is this going to be? They're putting the sets back together, exactly as they were.' Then you get there and it's like, 'Oh right, I hadn't thought about what was going on the last time I was actually here.'"

"And it just took me by surprise because it was like, 'Hi, past, remember me? Remember how that sucked? You thought everything was in front of you and life was going to be just gorgeous and then you went through maybe the hardest time in your life?'" she recalled as she continued. "It was all very jarring and, of course, you've got cameras everywhere and I'm already a little emotionally accessible, I guess you could say, so I had to walk out at certain points. I don't know how they cut around it."

"Friends" ran from 1994 to 2004 on NBC. During several of those years, Aniston was in a relationship with Brad Pitt, with the actor even guest-starring in an episode. The former couple married in 2000 after two years of dating. Aniston and Pitt announced their separation in January 2005 and their marriage was finalized that October. Pitt famously went on to have a relationship lasting over a decade, including 6 children, with Angelina Jolie. While many in the public, and media, blamed the Jolie relationship on why he split from Aniston, the actor previously insisted there was no infidelity in his marriage to the sitcom icon. Meanwhile, Aniston and Pitt both keep in touch despite their divorce.

Meanwhile, during her interview with THR, Aniston also shared why she and the "Friends" cast ultimately "changed" their stance and agreed to have a televised reunion after they were against it in the past.

"Enter [director] Ben Winston," she said. "We were all like, 'I don't know if we were just seduced by his talent or his charm or a combination of all of it.' Even the boys were like, 'Damn, I’m kind of in love with the guy. Like, I don't know if I said yes because it's good or because he's so gorgeous.' Whatever it was, we all said yes, so ..."

Speaking about the cast's chemistry, Aniston said, "We really did have so much fun together. I remember that was one of the things when we were young and dumb and renegotiating, one of the [studio's] threats was, 'Well, we don't need all six of you. We can do this with four of you.' We were like, 'What? You can? You can get rid of Rachel or Joey or who?' Then it was like, 'No they can't, wake up.'"

The Golden Globe winner also reflected on her life and career after "Friends." While Aniston admitted that some things in her personal life turned out different than what she had expected, she ultimately considers all of the "ups and downs" to be a "blessing."

"The career was one thing. I didn't know what was coming, and that's been nothing but blessed," she explained. "It's a different caliber of work but I love it, no matter what, even if it’s a terribly reviewed, dumb comedy, it doesn't matter if it brings me joy."

"It was more personal stuff that I had expectations about that sort of shape-shifted, so to speak," she continued. "That was what was jarring, that we all had an idea of what the future was going to be and we were going to go hunker down and focus on this or that and then it all just changed overnight, and that was it. But again, everything's a blessing if you're able to look at life's ups and downs in that way. And if it all hadn't happened, I would not be sitting here the woman that I am."

See more from Jennifer Aniston's THR profile here.