Friends is undoubtedly one of the most beloved (and endlessly quoted) television shows of all time, but according to its star Jennifer Aniston, the New York-based twenty-something comedy just wouldn’t have the same magic in 2017 (making a Friends reunion a very unlikely prospect indeed…)
Speaking to Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington on her Thrive Global Podcast, the actress who brought us of TV’s best-loved characters in Rachel Green explained that the ubiquity of social media would have a serious impact upon the show’s plot.
‘We were jokingly saying that if Friends was created today you would have a coffee shop full of people that were just staring into iPhones,’ she told Huffington. ‘There would be no actual episodes or conversations.’
Perhaps Aniston is right in feeling that part of the show’s charm comes from it being rooted in a pre-digital era: remember Chandler Bing bragging about his huge computer with 12 MB of Ram, a 500MB hard drive and built in spread-sheet capabilities? In 2017, the gang would surely have to fight for room on Central Perk’s famous sofa in between hoards of New Yorkers Instagramming their avocado on toast and artfully presented lattes (Gunther would not be amused).
The actress went on to explain why she’s chosen to stay off social media, revealing to Huffington that opting out of Twitter and Instagram is a form of ‘self-preservation’ in the face of extreme media interest.
‘For me, it’s self-preservation not to be on social media,’ she said. ‘There’s enough written about me out there and enough that’s not true. Look, the mystery of who you are as an actor is already sort of taken from you. This is the one place I actually have that is protected and mine, this little sanctuary.’
Jennifer’s sentiments echo the comments she made last year, when she told TV host Lorraine Kelly: ‘I think that period of time was nostalgic.’
‘Our faces weren’t stuffed into cell phones, we weren’t checking Facebook and Instagram: we were in a room together, we were in a coffee shop talking having conversations, we have lost that.’
Listen to the full interview with Jennifer Aniston on thriveglobal.com
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