Jennifer Aniston Spent on Luxury After the Success of Friends as Co-star Matt LeBlanc Struggled to Survive and Almost Starved to Death
Friends, an American television sitcom that debuted in 1994 and starred Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer, is still regarded as one of the greatest in the business. The show was conceived by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, who had no idea how popular it would become.
Six pals in their late 20s and early 30s are the focus of the show, which gradually gained popularity and peaked at number one in its eighth season. According to reports, 52.5 million people watched the 2004 series finale, making it the seventh most-watched series finale in history. The show’s actors went on to star in other successful projects but it was known that Friends came as a life-saving opportunity for LeBlanc.
Jennifer Aniston reveals her ‘first big splurge’ after Friends’ paycheck was a ‘mistake’
Actress Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green on the show and went on to become one of the most loved characters on the show, revealed in an interview with Popsugar in April via The Independent, about her first big splurge after she received a paycheck from friends. She said,
“There was a little white 280 SL Mercedes and it was there for a long time. I mean, it could have been over two years. And I always was like, ‘I can’t wait, someday, someday [I’ll buy it].’ And one day I bought it, and then I drove it, and then drove it again, and it never drove again.”
The actress who was at the time promoting her Netflix movie Murder Mystery 2 with co-star and friend Adam Sandler said, “It was a lemon, and that’s why it had been sitting there. I didn’t know any better to get it checked out, so that was just a nice 25-year-old mistake.” This meant that the car had a major manufacturing issue.
By the end of season 10 in 2004, the actors on the show were making a whopping $1 million per episode.
Matt LeBlanc struggled to survive before being cast as Joey Tribbiani on Friends
Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey Tribbiani on the show, revealed that the show got to him just in time to save him from starving. He shared with Conan O’Brien,
“You know when you think ‘I’ve got a little money in the bank, I can hold out until the next gig’? I had, I think I was down to $11 [£8.41]. Now that’s holding out too long. Because even if I said at that point: ‘I’m going to go get a waiter job,’ by the time that $11 ran out it would’ve been before the first pay cheque on that job. I would’ve starved.”
During the conversation, LeBlanc noted that when he went to get his headshots to show the casting agents, the photographer had told him to fill one of his teeth but the actor couldn’t afford to visit the dentist, so he did it himself. He said he went to the drug store, bought three packs of emery board, and did the gruesome job himself.
Did Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc have an affair while filming Friends?
According to StyleCaster, back in 2020, Matt LeBlanc’s father once said that the actor had a relationship with one of the girls, Jen, and they would make out in the dressing room. He added that LeBlanc had told him about it pointing out that it was at the time when Aniston was married to Brad Pitt.
Matt’s dad continued, “[Matt] was as good looking as anyone in Hollywood. But he isn’t going to age well. It’s the high life—I’ll see him with his gut hanging over his belt. He’s not someone who keeps himself toned down when he’s not in front of the cameras.”
Jennifer Aniston’s spokesperson was quick to respond via MailOnline as posted by HuffPost, “I have commented in the National Enquirer and others. It’s 100 percent false. Jennifer has never had a romantic or s**ual relationship with Matt LeBlanc.”
It was Joey and Rachel who had actually hooked up on the show towards the end of the series, but their lack of chemistry as a couple has always troubled the fans with the idea of them being together. However, their characters are great as friends and hence they part ways. Even the actors weren’t really a fan of their characters being involved romantically.
In 2017, speaking to Elle, Jennifer Aniston admitted, “They tried! I think there was a moment when Joey and Rachel got together that maybe it could happen, but it didn’t. It was Ross and Rachel all the way. I really believe that if there’s an afterworld to Friends, they’re still thriving. Don’t you? I just don’t think Joey and Rachel could have made it.” She lastly added that she thinks it was more physical than emotional for them. Rachel and Joey were friends with benefits, and they left it at that.
Source: The Independent
