13 things you probably didn't know about Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston SAG

Jennifer Aniston has been interim since the 1980s.
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  • Jennifer Aniston became a household proper name after "Friends" debuted back in 1994.
  • The actress appeared on several sitcoms earlier landing her office as Rachel Greenish.
  • Aniston's parents were actors, only they didn't encourage her to join the manufacture.

Both her parents were actors, but they didn't encourage her to join the manufacture.

Jennifer Aniston and John Aniston at the premiere of "The Object of My Affection" (1998).
Fred Prouser/Reuters

Aniston's begetter, John Aniston, starred on "Days of Our Lives," and her mother, Nancy Dow, starred on 1960s shows like "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Wild Wild West."

But they weren't exactly receptive to their girl following in their footsteps.

In 2015, Aniston told Collider that although she had a beloved for the theater growing upwards in New York Metropolis, her parents were pretty strict on her time in front of the television.

"I was hell-aptitude because my dad was but begging me not to exist in the industry.  He said, 'I do non want your heart cleaved.  The rejection is vicious.  Please, please, delight don't exercise that.  Become a lawyer.'" she said. "That was my one rebellion.  I was hoping that I was going to make information technology and so that I could prove him incorrect.

She had plenty of jobs before landing her first interim gigs.

Jennifer Aniston worked briefly as a bike messenger in New York City.
Barry King / Contributor

After pursuing musical-theater roles in loftier school, Aniston began auditioning in both New York Urban center and Los Angeles while holding down several less-than-glamorous jobs.

At a 2011 press conference for her movie "Horrible Bosses," she said, "The toughest job I've ever had was being a bicycle messenger in New York City. I was nineteen."

She added that her worst day on the chore was when she drove into an open car door. "I'chiliad just very uncoordinated and extraordinarily klutzy. And I merely never should accept been allowed on a wheel with cylinders," she said.

She apparently lasted only 2 days, telling Collider, "It was actually wrong to put me on a bike in New York City with taxi cabs."

During this fourth dimension, she besides worked every bit an water ice-cream scooper and a waitress.

In 1996, Aniston told Rolling Stone that she eventually moved to Hollywood, and "sold her soul" to take a task equally a telemarketer, before snagging her first acting role.

Aniston said she rocked a goth await in high school.

Jennifer Aniston said she "wasn't going for most beautiful" in high school.
Ron Galella / Contributor

These days, she's an A-list celebrity, but her high school years were a different story.

She told People mag in 2016, "Loftier school was tragic. But non well-informed. You know, you're experimenting. Information technology was the '80s and I looked like a goth nightmare."

"I wasn't going for most beautiful," she added. "It was, 'how can I be the most rebelliously unattractive?'"

She was on four dissimilar Television shows before "Friends."

Richard Riehle as Principal Ed Rooney, Charlie Schlatter equally Ferris Bueller, and Jennifer Aniston as Jeannie Bueller.
Alice Southward. Hall/NBCU Photo Depository financial institution/GettyImages

Few fans realize that Aniston had been on four short-lived sitcoms before landing the function that made her famous.

At 21, she starred aslope "The Large Blindside Theory" and "Bloom" star Mayim Bialik on Fox's "Molloy," acted on a brief Idiot box adaptation of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" in 1990, appeared on a Fox sketch comedy series called "The Edge" in 1992, and worked on a CBS comedy called "Muddling Through" in 1994 right earlier she landed the role of Rachel Green.

She told Collider in 2015, "I but had this deep feeling in my gut that somehow something was going to happen, and I just had to be patient."

Adam Sandler revealed that Aniston turned down a spot on "Saturday Nighttime Live" to star on "Friends."

Jennifer Aniston played Rachel Green on "Friends."
NBC

Aniston flexed her comedic chops early and near starred on "Saturday Night Live."

Simply in 2011, longtime "SNL" cast member Adam Sandler revealed to Oprah that Aniston turned the role downwardly to star on "Friends."

"I remember being on the 9th floor where Lorne Michaels' role was, and seeing Jen come in. I was similar, 'Oh, my God. At that place's Aniston. Is she about to be on our show?'" he said.

Aniston shared that "SNL" wasn't happy with her decision.

"They thought I was making a huge mistake," she said.

Someone else was beingness considered for the office of Rachel Light-green.

Courtney Cox virtually played Rachel Green before being cast as Monica Gellar.
IMDb/NBC

It's hard to imagine anyone else equally Rachel Green, but Aniston told Collider that she nearly swapped roles with costar Courteney Cox.

She said, "They wanted [Courteney Cox] to play Rachel. Unbeknownst to each other, I wanted to play Rachel and she wanted to play Monica. It worked out perfectly."

She hated her famous haircut.

Jennifer Aniston made "the Rachel" hairstyle famous.
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Throughout the tardily 1990s, women everywhere tried to emulate "the Rachel," Aniston's signature hair look from the early episodes of the show.

But fifty-fifty though Aniston'south pilus has inspired trends always since, information technology seems she'south not a fan of her most-famous cutting.

She has worked with stylist Chris McMillan ever since, but told Allure in 2011, "I love Chris, and he'due south the bane of my existence at the aforementioned time because he started that damn Rachel, which was non my best look. How do I say this? I call up it was the ugliest haircut I've e'er seen."

In fact, Aniston couldn't fifty-fifty style the wait herself, so she was completely reliant on McMillan for the six months she rocked "the Rachel."

Aniston is mortified by her first big-screen role.

Jennifer Aniston appeared in the 1993 picture, "Leprechaun."
Trimark Pictures

These days, she's a romantic-comedy queen, venturing out into other genres as well, including dramas, but her first big-screen part came in the campy, horror cult-classic "Leprechaun."

In 2014, she appeared on "The Graham Norton Bear witness," and when Norton asked if she'd seen the movie about a killer leprechaun recently, she said, "Really, it was a mortifying moment when [ex-husband] Justin [Theroux] and I had but started to engagement. He was flipping through the channels and he stumbled upon that. And that was our next 2 hours, much to my embarrassment."

In 2015, she told fans she has dyslexia.

Jennifer Aniston said struggled in school every bit a child.
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Aniston told The Hollywood Reporter that she always struggled with education until she was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disorder that tin can make reading difficult, in her early-20s.

She said, "I thought I wasn't smart. I simply couldn't retain anything. At present I had this dandy discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained."

To recoup for her worries, she said she focused instead on making people laugh when she was in school.

A traumatic experience in her childhood led to her fright of h2o as an developed.

Jennifer Aniston had to do underwater scenes in the film "Cake."
Warner Bros. Pictures

At a screening for her 2015 movie "Cake," Aniston revealed that she had a difficult time filming swimming scenes in the movie because she has a major fear of being underwater.

Co-ordinate to E! News, she said, "I basically accept a real fear of going underwater. I was a kid and I was riding this tricycle around a swimming puddle and I collection my tricycle into the swimming pool and I didn't let get and my brother tried to [help me]. So, I tin can't get underwater and no one volition believe me. I honestly tin can't."

Her honeymoon with former husband Theroux was a group trip with shut friends.

Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston celebrated their wedlock with a grouping of friends in Bora Bora.
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Instead of opting for a traditional honeymoon after their 2015 nuptials, Aniston and her then-married man Theroux celebrated their marriage with their friends, inviting famous pals similar Chelsea Handler, Jason Bateman, and Courteney Cox to the 4 Seasons resort in Bora Bora.

Theroux dished on the trip to Actress TV proverb, "It was a fantastic honeymoon. Nosotros had idea about information technology; we could just exercise a normal honeymoon, or we could go with some friends, proceed the party going, relax, and accept fun. It was really special, information technology was really cute."

She has been open about how important therapy is in her life.

Jennifer Aniston shared that her therapist died at the time she was going through her divorce from Brad Pitt.
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In 2018, when she was promoting "Dumplin," Aniston told  Extra TV about how the tumultuous human relationship with her late mom helped her relate to her role in the picture show.

"How lucky I am I got through that without having any emotional scarring," she said. "I've been in therapy for years."

In 2015, she told The Hollywood Reporter that her dear therapist unexpectedly died effectually the time that she was divorcing Pitt, sharing, "But I learned so much in the 4 years I worked with her, that when she did pass abroad I remember thinking, 'Wow, everything that we talked about and discussed, it's allowed me to be actually peaceful nearly information technology all.' I mean, there were man moments. But I was actually shockingly OK."

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