Why Did Mindy Change On Friends? Jennifer Grey's Real Life Reason Explained

It's hard to remember that the core sextet on "Friends" have other, well, friends. In the pilot episode of the beloved sitcom, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) is a rain-soaked runaway bride, having left her fiancé, Barry (Mitchell Whitfield), at the altar, as well as her entire Long Island social life — including her best friend, Mindy.

Mindy decamps with Barry to Aruba on what would have been Rachel's honeymoon. In the Season 1 episode "The One with the Evil Orthodontist," Mindy, played by Jennifer Grey, makes her on-screen debut and asks Rachel to be her maid-of-honor at her upcoming wedding to Barry.

Grey, who's best known for her performances in "Dirty Dancing" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," was thrilled to be asked to be on "Friends." When she got to set, the experience was much more anxiety-inducing than she anticipated. "It's very hard to be a guest star because you're not a part of it, and you're really trying to figure it all out," Grey told MediaVillage. "They were trying to figure out what the character was, what the scene was, and it was changing, and changing, and changing. It all made me so anxious that I could barely do it."

Her one-time guest role was so overwhelming that when the "Friends" team reached out for her to return to the series, she had to turn them down. "When they asked me to come back, I said I couldn't," Grey recalled. Instead, Mindy is played in a Season 2 episode by Jana Marie Hupp.

Jennifer Grey appeared in her lone episode of "Friends" in 1995, but she had already been struggling with anxiety for a few years, even if she couldn't quite articulate it. In 1993, Grey had a panic attack on stage while performing in the play "The Twilight of the Golds."

By the time her role on "Friends" came around, Grey was still struggling with her mental health. "I didn't know at the time what was going on with me," she said in the same MediaVillage interview. "But I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I just didn't understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department."

In addition to bowing out of additional episodes of "Friends," the actress also turned down a hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live." "It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on 'Friends' or doing 'Saturday Night Live' because of my anxiety," Grey continued. "The truth is, I wished I had people to help me navigate that kind of fear. But I couldn't be there until I was there."

By 2010, Grey had gotten a handle around her anxiety, and she surprised herself by competing in — and winning — Season 11 of "Dancing With the Stars." "At the time I didn't watch it because I was so busy learning the next dance that I never actually could see it," she said. "Eventually when I did look at it, it was thrilling to be able to say, 'I can't believe I did that.'"

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.