Jennifer Aniston almost didn't take the role of Rachel Green in Friends

Friends producer's first choice for Rachel role was actress Téa Leoni but she turned down the role and Courtney Cox was offered the same role but she rejected it because she wants to act as Monica.

Other actresses like Jane Krakowski, Elizabeth Berkley, and Tiffani Thiessen went for audition for the role.

Friends's writer/producer Marta Kauffman recalled, “Rachel was the part that was hardest to cast. Jennifer came in, and she was in a show that was on the air – Muddling Through.“

NBC Head of Casting Lori Openden recalled, "We auditioned other actors for Jennifer’s part, but nobody else was good enough".

Friends creator and executive producer David Crane revealed, "An exec at NBC called to say she’d offered the part of Rachel to Jami Gertz. We didn’t have a Rachel, and Jami Gertz is a really talented actress, but not Rachel. So we held our breath for 24 hours until she passed.”

Jennifer Aniston recalled that the producer for Muddling Through told her this when she wanted step out the role of Madeline Cooper and go for Rachel Green instead, "That's when he said, ‘I've seen that show Friends, I saw that show. I saw the pilot. That's not going to make you a star. This show will make you a star.' And then the rest is history."