10 Actors You Won't Believe Were Nearly Cast In Friends

9. Tea Leoni - Rachel

Jennifer Aniston is perhaps the most universally famous of the Friends actors, and is the one who's probably had the most success outside of the show, what with all those successful Hollywood movies and that high profile relationship with that Brad Pitt guy. In a way, then, Aniston often feels like the most Friends-y of Friends characters (we won't tell anybody about that sentence if you won't) - the epitome of a Friends character, if you will, and the one who we presumably identify most with the show itself. But originally the producers of the show considered another actress entirely: Tea Leoni. Leoni, who decided that she wanted to star in The Naked Truth instead (cancelled on its third season), turned down the part. Aniston, who was then being groomed for a spot on Saturday Night Live (can you imagine) swept in to play Rachel, and the rest is history. Yes, she turned down a part on SNL to star in Friends, which - as you can imagine - was a huge risk. Had she had opted for a gig on SNL, the likelihood is we'd know her face now anyway... but not for Rachel.