Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow took a trip down memory lane while recalling making their beloved sitcom Friends, reflecting on when major A-listers would make iconic cameos — including Aniston’s ex-husband Brad Pitt.
“Those were great, the Thanksgiving episodes. When Brad was on, that was hilarious,” Kudrow, 62, said during Variety’s Actors on Actors, which dropped on Wednesday, June 3.
Aniston, 57, replied, “I know. How funny. The movie stars that came on Friends. Brad, Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts. Isabella Rossellini. We had so many — Sean Penn. They were always nervous. Remember? I always found it fascinating how nervous they were.”
Kudrow agreed that the famous figures came into the show with a “nervous” mindset.
“Well, because what’s the tone? It’s not theater; it’s for TV. It’s not a movie. What the hell is this? And it’s a good question. And I remember someone asked one time. I didn’t know how to explain it, so I said, ‘Oh, just talk louder. Same intention, just —,’” she said, while Aniston agreed, “Just louder!”
Pitt made a guest appearance on the sitcom during a 2001 Thanksgiving episode where he portrayed Ross Geller’s (David Schwimmer) old friend. The pair were part of the “I Hate Rachel” club in high school, which the group of friends — including Rachel (Aniston), Phoebe (Kudrow), Monica (Courteney Cox), Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) — learned while eating dinner together.
At the time of filming, Pitt and Aniston were married. The twosome, who tied the knot in 2000, announced their separation in 2005. Pitt went on to tie the knot with Angelina Jolie in 2014, and the pair share six children. (Jolie, 50, filed for divorce two years later, which was finalized in 2024.)
Aniston, meanwhile, has been candid about her fertility struggles after speculation sparked that her marriage to Pitt ended over a clash about kids.
“I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child,” she told Allure in November 2022. “And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.”
Aniston later moved on with Justin Theroux and the pair were married from 2015 to 2018. She has since begun dating Jim Curtis, with whom she sparked romance rumors in 2025. After the couple was spotted on a yacht in Mallorca, a source confirmed to Us Weekly that the pair were set up by mutual friends.
“They are being super private but have been spending a lot of time together,” the insider shared. “They are happy and really into each other.”
Pitt, for his part, has been in a relationship with Ines de Ramon since 2022.
